The Dewey School The Laboratory School Of The University Of Chicago 1896-1903

125584

THE DEWEY SCHOOL

JOHN DEWEY, ABOUT 1890

The Dewey School

THE LABORATORY SCHOOL OF THE

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

1896-1903

By
KATHERINE CAMP MAYHEW

and
ANNA CAMP EDWARDS

* Introduction by
JOHN DEWEY

D. APPLETON-CENTURY COMPANY

IN CORPORATE!*

NEW YORK LONDON

1936, BY

COMPANY, INC.

rights reserved,. "This book,^ or parts
must not be reproduced in any
permission of the publishers.

PRINTED INT XHE XTNIXED STATES OF AMERICA

PREFACE

The increasing number of progressive schools throughout the
world shows the wide and fast growing interest on the part of
parents and educators in an educational experience for their
children which they do not find in schools of the more tradi-
tional types. This interest renders an account of an early organ-
ized experiment in progressive education suitable and timely.

This school was a cooperative venture of parents, teachers,
and educators, and was carried on at the University of Chicago
during the years from 1896 to 1903. Under the direction of John
Dewey, then head of the University's unified departments of
Philosophy, Psychology, and Pedagogy, the undertaking grew
out of a genuine desire to work out with children an edu-
cational experience more creative than that provided by even
the best of the current systems.

The school was a laboratory for the departments of Psychol-
ogy and Pedagogy where Mr. Dewey's educational theories and
their sociological implications were worked out in accord with
the then new psychological principles and in association with
colleagues and students, the teachers in the school, and the par-
ents of the children. It was never a "practice" school.

The book has been called The Dewey School not because
Mr. Dewey as its head ever exercised any of the dominance too
often evident in a "One man's school." Rather was the title
chosen out of gratitude to the great person who made the school
possible by his objective and impersonal attitude of faith in
the growing ability of every individual, whether child or
teacher. Mr. Dewey was never dominating. His respect for the
opinions of even the youngest and least experienced of his staff
bore fruit in the creative character of the work done. Only a
person who has worked in such an atmosphere can understand
what inspiration to creative work such freedom gives. After
all, teaching is a creative social art. Mr. Dewey's philosophy

vi PREFACE

expressed through his personality stimulated others and re-
leased their powers so that all who understood his point of
view worked freely and cooperatively under his guidance.

The subtitle of the book, The Laboratory School of the Uni-
versity of Chicago, indicates its relation to the University, al-
ways a source of direct and indirect help and backing. Without
this direction from experts, the teachers, functioning creatively
in their daily experience, would have traveled many more blind
alleys than they did. Had this experiment been allowed to
come to fruition, it would have presented the first example of
a unified enterprise in education at all age levels.

The slowly evolving curriculum of the Dewey School in both
subject-matter and method was the result of the combined ex-
perimental efforts of trained specialists. These chapters should
reveal that it was scientifically developed. Great emphasis was
given to the use of directed experimental method in all areas
of study. The main hypothesis was that life itself, especially
those occupations and associations which serve man's chief
needs, should furnish the ground experience for the education
of children. The classrooms in this laboratory school were the
proving grounds where teachers—specialists in their subjects-
would discover, by trying, the particular experiences that
would enrich the child's present life, making it a growing
process and an ever more real and satisfactory preparation for
the future. The hypothesis was that freedom to express in
action is a necessary condition of growth, but that guidance of
such expression is an equally necessary condition, especially of
childhood's freedom. Learning, a main issue to the teacher, was
seen as a side issue to the child, a by-product of his activity. The
test of learning was the increasing ability of the child to meet
new situations through habits of considered action which were
even more social in character. It was found that satisfaction
and emotional stability accompany such growth. The develop-
ment of the curriculum was in relation to the immediate in-
terests of growing children and thereby revealed the chief in-
terests of the different psychological levels of this span in their
life development. A type of education in which there is steady
maintenance of cooperative processes and constant use of the

PREFACE vii

scientific principle of objective testing of ideas through action
and evaluating the results of such action for future planning,
has significant implications for the world ferment of the day.

The authors were both teachers in the school. Katherine
Camp Mayhew, as vice-principal, was in charge of the develop-
ing curriculum; she was also head of the science department.
Anna Camp Edwards was a teacher of history in the early ex-
perimental period and later as a special tutor followed through
the work of all other departments at older age levels, an expe-
rience which has aided her in interpreting the value of
Mr. Dewey's philosophy of education in the present crisis.

The scope of this study was decided upon and its plan worked
out by the authors in close consultation with Mr. Dewey, who
has guided the entire development of the book. Throughout
these consultations Mrs. Edwards acted as secretary and cus-
todian of the records from which the selections used were made.
In order that the manuscript should have literary unity, it be-
came apparent that the composition and writing must be done
by one of the authors. Mrs. Edwards has served in this capacity
for all the chapters except the seventeenth. She is responsible
for the amalgamation and editing of all the records and con-
tributions from the various accredited sources. Mrs. Mayhew
taught science and mathematics in the school for seven years.
This and her wide later experience are the backgrounds of the
seventeenth chapter and for her many invaluable contributions
to all the other chapters of the book, especially her account of
how the school developed the approach to history as the story
of man's progress through invention, exploration, and dis-
covery.

The original manuscript of this book was too large for pub-
lication. All the chapters were reduced in size, and two chapters
omitted from the body of the book. These two chapters, how-
ever, have been included in the form of an appendix. The first,
The Evolution of Mr. Dewey's Principles of Education, was
written by Mrs. Anna Camp Edwards; the second, The Theory
of the Chicago Experiment, by Mr. Dewey himself.

From 1896 to 1899 extensive accounts of the experimental
school were published in the University Record. During 1900

viii PREFACE

the reports of the school appeared in a series of nine mono-
graphs entitled the Elementary School Record. These were later
bound in one volume which soon was out of print. The records
of 1901 and 1902 consisted of typed reports and summaries care-
fully collected and edited by Laura L. Runyon. These were
never printed. The sources upon which the writers have drawn
include the publications and documents mentioned above, the
current and later writings of Mr. and Mrs. Dewey, and those of
alumni and friends of the school. The school was deeply in-
debted to Mrs. Alice C. Dewey for her exceptional insight in
solving many of its problems. She also collected and preserved
a large part of the source materials. Mrs. Dewey's death in 1927
made impossible her plan to write the history of the school in
collaboration with Mrs. Mayhew. Following her death, the
authors undertook the work at Mr. Dewey's request and grate-
fully acknowledge their debt to Mrs. Dewey.

In the following pages much material has been taken from
hitherto unpublished accounts of the school. The writers have
also used extracts from published articles by the following:
Georgia F. Bacon, Althea Harmer Bardeen, Lillian Cushman
Brown, Hattie Hover Harding, Charles F. Harding, Katherine
Andrews Healy, Nellie Johnson O'Conner, May Root Kern,
Laura L. Runyon, and Katherine C. Mayhew. Special mention
should be made of the never failing support of Mr. and Mrs.
George H. Mead and their constant faith in the educational
worth of the school. The first account of the undertaking, The
School and Society, a series of three lectures on the school by
Mr. Dewey, was edited by Mr. and Mrs. Mead, assisted by
Katherine Camp Mayhew and Althea Harmer Bardeen.

Appreciation is expressed to Miss Bacon, Mrs. Brown, Miss
Runyon, Sara French Miller, D. P. MacMillan, and Mary Tough
for counsel in the early planning of the manuscript; to Elsie
Clapp for her suggestions in relation to the needs of teachers;
to Harry O. Gillette for access to letters and information col-
lected by a graduate student for an unfinished thesis and to the
few records of the last year of the school, preserved in the pres-
ent School of Education of the University of Chicago; to George
W. Locke, Anna Bryan, Grace Fulmer, E. C. Moore, Frank H.

PREFACE ix

Manny, W. A. Baldwin, and Helen Thompson Wooley; also to
many pupils of the school, parents, former teachers, graduate
students, and visitors at the school for their loyal support. Ap-
preciation is also expressed to Marion Le Brun Pigman for her
aid in the first revisions of the manuscript; to Elizabeth F.
Camp, John L. Childs, Richard H. Edwards, Galen M. Fisher,
Price H. Gwynn, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Paul R. Hanna, Mrs. Harriet
Hover Harding, Mrs. Katherine Andrews Healy, and Mrs.
William Kent for valuable suggestions on the manuscript.
The authors are indebted to several friends and alumni of
the school for making it possible to include a number of the
illustrations, thus giving much added interest and value to the
story of the experiment.

Gratitude is due above all to Mr. Dewey for his written con-
tributions, his permission to quote his writings freely, and for
the generous donation of his time and thought, and to Evelyn
Dewey (Mrs. Granville Smith, Jr.) for the final editing of the
manuscript.

CONTENTS

PAGE
PREFACE V

INTRODUCTION XV

PART I

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT AND ORGANIZATION

CHAPTER

I. GENERAL HISTORY $

II. EXPERIMENTAL BASIS OF CURRICULUM . 2O

PART II

THE CURRICULUM-SOCIAL OCCUPATIONS

III. EXPERIMENTAL PRACTICES DEVELOPING THE CURRICU-

LUM 39

IV. HOUSEHOLD OCCUPATIONS 56

V. SOCIAL OCCUPATIONS SERVING THE HOUSEHOLD . . 74

VI. PROGRESS THROUGH INVENTION AND DISCOVERY . . 95

VII. PROGRESS THROUGH EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY . 117

VIII. LOCAL HISTORY 141

IX. COLONIAL HISTORY AND THE REVOLUTION . . . . l66

X. EUROPEAN BACKGROUND OF THE COLONISTS . . .185

XI. EXPERIMENTS IN SPECIALIZED ACTIVITIES . . . . 2OO

XII. EXPERIMENTS IN SPECIALIZED ACTIVITIES . . . . 22O

XIII. EXPERIMENTS IN SPECIALIZED ACTIVITIES . . . . 257

XIV. PRINCIPLES OF GROWTH GUIDING SELECTION OF ACTIV-

ITIES 25O

xii CONTENTS

PART III
EDUCATIONAL USE OF SCIENTIFIC METHOD

CHAPTER PAGE

XV. EXPERIMENTAL ACTIVITIES DEVELOPING SCIENTIFIC

METHOD AND CONCEPTS ........ 271

XVI. EXPERIMENTAL ACTIVITIES DEVELOPING ORIGINS AND
BACKGROUNDS OF SOCIAL LIFE

XVII. EXPERIMENTAL ACTIVITIES DEVELOPING SKILLS IN

COMMUNICATION AND EXPRESSION ..... 336

PART IV

PERSONNEL-ORGANIZATION-EVALUATION

XVIII. TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ORGANIZATION . . . .365

XIX. PARENTS AND CHILDREN ........ 397

XX. EVALUATION OF PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES . . .413

APPENDICES

I. THE EVOLUTION OF MR. DEWEY'S PRINCIPLES OF EDU-

CATION ............ 445

II. THE THEORY OF THE CHICAGO EXPERIMENT . . . 463
III. A LIST OF TEACHERS AND ASSISTANTS IN THE LABORA-

TORY SCHOOL .......... 479

INDEX ............... 481

ILLUSTRATIONS

John Dewey, about 1890 frontispiece

FACING PAGE

The last home of the Dewey School, 5412 Ellis Avenue, Chicago . 8

Gardening for the younger groups 96

Drawing working plans for farm utensils 96

Pooling their experience and labor to construct a larger smelter . 113

Weaving in the textile studio 113

A busy morning in the textile studio 160

Girls of Group X working on the club-house 232

The finished club-house in use (1903) 232

Biology from an evolutionary point of view 297

A class in cooking (Group VI, age 9 years, 1900) 305

Finishing the heddle 320

Painting scenery for the Columbus play 400

John Dewey, 1935 417

xiii

INTRODUCTION

The account of the Laboratory School contained in the pages
that follow is so adequate as to render it unnecessary for me
to add anything to what is said about its origin, aims, and
methods. It is, however, a grateful task to express my apprecia-
tion of the intelligent care with which the theory and practice
of the school have been reported. Because of their long connec-
tion with the school, the authors have a first-hand knowledge,
while their responsible share in the work of the school has en-
abled them to make an authoritative statement of its underly-
ing ideas, its development, and the details of its operation. The
entire history of the school was marked by an unusual degree
of cooperation among parents, teachers, and pupils. It is par-
ticularly gratifying to have this living evidence that the coop-
erative spirit still continues.

My gratification is far from being merely personal. The vol-
ume has historic interest and value, since it is a record of one
of the earlier efforts in this country in the direction of experi-
mental and progressive schools. But this historic interest is not
all. This educational movement is still going on and is far from
having reached its goal; its unsolved problems are still many.
The book has, I think, a good deal to contribute now and here.
It is timely as well as historical in interest. There is one point
in particular which may be singled out for its present bearing.
The problem of the relation between individual freedom and
collective well-being is today urgent and acute, perhaps more
so than at any time in the past. The problem of achieving both
of these values without the sacrifice of either one is likely to be
the dominant problem of civilization for many years to come.
The schools have their part to play in working out the solution,
and their own chief task is to create a form of community life
and organization in which both of these values are conserved.
The school whose work is reported in this volume was animated

xvi INTRODUCTION

by a desire to discover in administration, selection of subject-
matter, methods o£ learning, teaching, and discipline, how a
school could become a cooperative community while develop-
ing in individuals their own capacities and satisfying their own
needs. I am sure the present value of the volume is not ex-
hausted in its account of this phase of the school's life. But the
present importance of the issue emboldens me to believe that
it is especially timely at the present juncture.

JOHN DEWEY

PARTI

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT AND
ORGANIZATION

CHAPTER I

GENERAL HISTORY

following pages tell the story of one of the earliest ex-
periments in what later came to be known as progressive educo^
tion. This experiment was an integral part of the University of
Chicago during the years 1896 to 1904, and was an undertaking
which aimed to work put, through the University, a school
system which should be an organic whole from the kindergarten
to the university. Conducted under the management and super-
vision of the University's Department of Philosophy, Psychol-
ogy, and Education, it bore the same relation to the work of that
department that a laboratory bears to biology, physics, or chem-
istry. Like any such laboratory it had two main purposes: (i)
to exhibit, test, verify, and criticize theoretical statements and
principles; and (2) to add to the sum of facts and principles
in its special line. In consequence, it was often called the
Laboratory School. The name is significant. John Dewey, when
called to be the head of the department in 1894, had arrived
at certain philosophical and psychological ideas which he de-
sired to test in practical application. This desire was not merely
personal, but flowed from the very nature of the ideas them-
selves. For it was part of the philosophical and psychological
theory he entertained that ideas, even as ideas, are incomplete
and tentative until they are employed in application to objects
in action and are thus developed, corrected, and tested. The
need of a laboratory was indicated. Moreover, the inclusive
scope of the ideas in question demanded something more than
a laboratory of experimentation in its restricted technical sense.
The materials with which they dealt were the continuing de-
velopment of human beings in knowledge, understanding, and
character. A school was the answer to the need.

3

4 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

During the years at Chicago, Mr. Dewey's thought along
these lines was greatly stimulated and enriched. One of the
important influences affecting the distinct advance in the
psychological formulations of this period was the cooperative
thinking and pooled results of a close-knit group of colleagues,
all concentrating under one leadership. James R. Angell was
then working out his ideas of functional psychology. George
H. Mead, who earlier had been a colleague of Mr. Dewey's at
the University of Michigan, was developing the psychology
of the act on the basis of wide biological knowledge, and James
H. Tufts collaborated with Mr. Dewey in a course for the
parents of the school. These men and others in related depart-
ments of the University made up a united and enthusiastic
group of investigators and teachers.

Mr. Dewey's thinking was further supplemented by the work
of the various study clubs of which he was a member and the
groups of graduate and undergraduate students under his direc-
tion. He early joined the Illinois Society for Child Study, which
included among its members many able educators. In the trans-
actions of this society, which were being watched and com-
mented upon by leaders in psychological thinking, Mr. Dewey
took an active part. A number of his earliest statements were
published by this organization and by the newly organized
National Herbart Society.

As a result of all this original and cooperative effort, there
were gradually built up the psychological and sociological prin-
ciples, which, together with their many implications, form the
basis of Mr. Dewey's theory of education. Statements of these
appeared from time to time in various periodicals and in other
forms.1

i This selected list of statements published at the time contains the
essential elements in Mr. Dewey's philosophy of education: (i) "The Re-
sults of Child-Study Applied to Education," Transactions of the Illinois
Society for Child Study, January, 1895; (a) "Interest as Related to Will,"
in National Herbart Society, Second Supplement to the Herbart Yearbook
for 1895; (3) "The Reflex-Arc Concept in Psychology," Psychological Re-
view, July, 1896; (4) "Pedagogy as a University Discipline," University
(of Chicago) Record, September, 1896; (5) "Ethical Principles Underlying
Education," in National Herbart Society, Third Yearbook (Chicago, 1897);

GENERAL HISTORY 5

Many of the interested group and their friends were parents,
and the idea of a school which should test in practice these
newly stated principles of education grew out of their desire
that their own children should experience this kind of school-
ing. The ideas of the group were formulated by Mr. Dewey
in a privately printed brochure, "Plan of Organization of the
University Primary School." This plan as summarized by Mr.
Dewey follows.2

"Because of the idea that human intelligence developed in
connection with the needs and opportunities of action, the core
of school activity was to be found in occupations, rather than
in what are conventionally termed studies. Study in the sense
of inquiry and its outcome in gathering and retention of in-
formation was to be an outgrowth of the pursuit of certain
continuing or consecutive occupational activities. Since the
development of the intelligence and knowledge of mankind
has been a cooperative matter, and culture, in its broadest
sense, a collective creation, occupations were to be selected
which related those engaged in them to the basic needs of
developing life, and demanded cooperation, division of work,
and constant intellectual exchange by means of mutual com-
munication and record. Since the integration of the individual
and the social is impossible except when the individual lives
in close association with others in the constant free give and
take of experiences, it seemed that education could prepare
the young for the future social life only when the school was
itself a cooperative society on a small scale. Therefore, the
first factor in bringing about the desired coordination of these
occupations was the establishment of the school itself as a
form of community life.

"The primary skills, in reading, writing, and numbers, were
to grow out of the needs and the results of activities. More-
over, since basic occupations involve relations to the materials
and forces of nature, just as the processes of living together

(6) "Principles of Mental Development as Illustrated in Early Infancy,"
Transactions of the Illinois Society for Child Study, October, 1899; (7) The
School and Society (Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1899).
2 John Dewey. Written for the Authors.

6 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

involve social invention, organization, and establishment of
human bonds, making the development of individuals secure
and progressive, knowledge was to grow out of the active con-
tact with things and energies inherent in consecutive activities.
History, for instance, was to be a deepening and an extension
of the process of human invention and integration. The de-
velopment of character and the management of what is or-
dinarily called discipline, were to be, as far as possible, the
outgrowth of a shared community life in which teachers were
guides and leaders. The substratum of the educative process
was thus to develop from the idea that the young have native
needs and native tendencies of curiosity, love of active occupa-
tion, and desire for association and mutual exchange which
provide the intrinsic leverage for educative growth in knowl-
edge, understanding, and conduct

"The significance of these principles for the educational ex-
periment that was undertaken can best be gathered from the
account of the actual life of the school. The controlling aim
of the school was not the aim of present progressive education.
It was to discover and apply the principles that govern all hu-
man development that is truly educative, to utilize the methods
by which mankind has collectively and progressively advanced
in skill, understanding, and associated life.

"The basic principle necessarily demanded a very consider-
able break with the aims, methods, and materials familiar in the
traditional school. It involved departure from the conception
that, in the main, the proper materials and methods of educa-
tion are already well-known and need only to be furthered,
refined, and extended. It implied continual experimentation
to discover the conditions under which educative growth actu-
ally occurs. It implied also much more attention to present
conditions in the life of individuals, children, and contem-
porary society than was current in schools based chiefly upon
the attainments of the past^t^mvolved the substitution of an
active attitude of work and play and of inquiry for the pro-
cesses of imposition and passive absorption of ready-made
knowledge and preformed skills that largely dominated the
traditional school. It implied a much larger degree of op-

GENERAL HISTORY 7

portunity for initiative, discovery, and independent communi-
cation of intellectual freedom than was characteristic of the
traditional school^)

-*s/

"Thus the nai^e J^&oratory. School (originally suggested by
Ella Flagg Young), gives a Jkey^to. the work _Q! the. school. A
laboratory-is, as ., the wor.gl implies, a place for activity, for1
work, for the consecutive carrying on of an occupation and
in the case of education the occupation must be inclusive of
all fundamental human values. A laboratory also implies di-
rective ideas, leading hypotheses that, as they are applied,
lead to new understandings. It demands also workers, who with-
out being enslaved to the past, are acquainted with achieve-
ments of the past in science and^arkjand who are possessed of
the best skills that have been worked out by the cooperative
efforts of human beings. Like every human enterprise the
Laboratory School came far short of achieving its ideal and
putting its controlling ideas into successful" 'operation. But
some knowledge as to what the ideals and ideas were is neces-
sary to give unity and coherence to an account of its detailed
work."

The practical difficulties of creating a new school as com-
pared with the formulation of theoretical principles were
recognized from the start. The idea of education as growth
was new. Since growth is the characteristic of all life, education
is all one with growing; it has no end beyond itself; it goes
on during the whole life span of the individual; it is the result
of the constant adjustment of the individual to his physical
and social environment which is thus both used and modified
to supply his needs and those of his social groups. All these
new theoretical statements presented practical difficulties.
There were no precedents for this type of schooling to follow,
and there was need to study the growing child in relation to
his environment and to experiment with subject-matter and
method to find what ministered best to his growth.

With faith in the soundness of the experimental approach
to education that should test in practice the value of the
theory, the school opened in January, 1896, in a private dwell-
ing with sixteen pupils and two persons in charge. The first

8 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

six months was a "trial-and-error" period and was chiefly in-
dicative of what not to do. The school reopened on a new basis
in October, 1896, at 5718 Kimbark Avenue with thirty-two
children ranging in age from six to eleven and a staff of three
regular teachers, one in charge of science and the domestic
arts, one of literature and history, and one of manual training.
A part-time instructor in music was also on the staff, and three
graduate students gave all or part of their time to the school.
The school continued at these headquarters until January,
1897, when, owing to inadequate space, it removed to the old
South Park Club House, at the corner of Rosalie Court and
57th Street. The number of teachers was increased and new
pupilfiL-were received, making the enrolment forty-five.

By December, 1897, the staff of teachers had grown to six-
teen, the children numbered sixty, and the school again faced
the need of larger quarters. In October, 1898, the school opened
in an old residence at 5412 Ellis Avenue. At this time the
school took on its subsequent departmental form, thus har-
monizing with the University. A sub-primary department was
added to include children of four and five. Eighty-two children
were enrolled. New quarters included a gymnasium and manual
training rooms in a barn connected with the house by a covered
way. Art and textile rooms occupied the large attic rooms.
The science department had two laboratories, one for combined
physics and chemistry, and one for biology. The history depart-
ment shared three special rooms with the English department.
Domestic science now had a kitchen large enough for two
groups to work together and two dining rooms properly
equipped for serving.

In these quarters the school entered upon another stage of
its history. The experience of two years and a half of success
and failure afforded a basis out of which there grew an ever
developing curriculum. Through the years 1900, 1901, and
1905 the school continued to increase in numbers until it
reached a maximum of one hundred and forty children. The
teaching staff increased to twenty-three teachers and instructors
with about ten assistants (graduate students of the University).
With its increase in size the organization of the teaching staff

THE LAST HOME OF THE DEWEY SCHOOJL, 5412 ELLIS AVENUE,

CHICAGO

GENERAL HISTORY 9

had become more formal in character. Mr. Dewey continued
as Director, and Ella Flagg Young of the Department of Educa-
tion was Supervisor of Instruction. Mrs. Dewey's previous in-
formal connection now became official as principal of the
school. She was also director of the Department of English
and literature, and had general oversight of the language ex-
pression of the schpol. The relationship with the University
continued as before, insuring stability and continuity to the
work, as well as providing the advantages of expert advice,
planning, and supervision of instruction.

The administration of the school was, particularly in its
formative years, so much a matter of the cooperation of those
directing and teaching that it is difficult to say where executive
or administrative responsibilities ended and those of teaching
began. As head of the Department of Pedagogy, Mr. Dewey
was at all times head of the Laboratory School; but for the first
three years of its existence the various administrative duties fell
in great part to members of the teaching staff, were informally
determined in conference with the director, and shifted
constantly to meet temporary exigencies and changing needs.
The teaching staff in these years, therefore, was the administra-
tive, with the exception of certain administrative functions,
chiefly financial, which were carried out by the University
Department of Pedagogy. In later years when the greatly in-
creased staff necessitated a more formal organization, the school
was departmentalized, and while the administrative staff was
still composed of teachers, a division of responsibility was made.
One, as principal, took charge of all contacts with parents,
graduate student-teachers, and visitors, and one, as vice-
principal, continued to assume responsibility for the curricu-
lum. At this time also, a supervisor from the Department of
Pedagogy of the University was added to the staff. She also
conducted classes with the pedagogical students working in the
school and doing laboratory work as assistants,8 where the prin-

* Principal and director of history, Georgia Bacon, 1900-1901; principal
and director of the language instruction, Alice Chipman Dewey, 1901-
1903; vice-principal and director of science, Katherine Camp; supervisor,
Ella Flagg Young.

10 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

ciples and practices of the school were discussed and related.
The early meetings, of the experimental years, however, being
smaller, had included, in addition to the teachers, all of the
Fellows, and most of the students and instructors in the Uni-
versity's Department of Pedagogy.

In retrospect, the cooperation of the many departments of
the University, particularly in all forms of science is acknowl-
edged with gratitude. Heads of these departments, as well as
individual staff members, were generous with their time and
facilities. In addition to this whole-hearted aid in material
ways, intellectual resources were freely put at the disposal of
the teachers. Of immeasurable, stabilizing value was the re-
lationship to the University. As the laboratory of the Depart-
ment of Pedagogy, the school shared widi the other laboratories
of the University die benefits of such intimate relationship.
This gave an easy accessibility for teachers desiring it to many
scientists who were, or since have become, leaders of thought
and accomplishment in their various fields. Many of these
men had, in addition to special attainments, unusual pedagogi-
cal interests which led to their giving constant intellectual
and material help to the teachers of the school.4

As time went on, it became clear that this experiment in
education required also experimental administrative methods.
A school that was a social institution modeled after the or-
ganization of an ideal home required a special arrangement
and organization of its directing factors. Instead of a group of

* Perhaps the University of Chicago possessed in the beginning many
more scientists later to achieve international distinction than had been
gathered together in any other new university. At that time Thomas G.
Chamberlain was elaborating his planetesimal theory of the origin of
the solar system and came to talk about it to the children. John M. Coulter
planned and guided the experiments on plant relations. Others who co-
operated were Charles O. Whitman in zoology, Jacques Loeb in physiology,
W. I. Thomas and George Vincent in sociology, Frederick Starr in anthro-
pology, Rollin D. Salisbury in geography, Albert A Michelson in physics,
Alexander Smith in chemistry, and Henry C. Cowles in ecology. The
school was indebted to numerous persons in other departments of the
University especially to Mr. and Mrs. William D. MacClintock, to G. E.
Hale, Wallace Atwood, and to the members of Mr. Dewey's departments
for continuous cooperation particularly to George H. Mead, James H.
Tufts, and James R. Angell.

GENERAL HISTORY n

persons who planned on paper a program which they then
required a staff of teachers to teach to the pupils, these experi-
menters were confronted with a different problem. The aid
of the teachers (as well as of the pupils) was a fundamental
and primary requisite to even the theoretical formulation of
an educative program. Plainly, therefore, all three factors,
administrators, teachers, pupils, must share in the functions
of managing and executing the teacher-learning process. In-
deed, such an experiment in education as this could not go on
except through a group of persons all of whom were intel-
lectually and socially cooperating in a constantly developing
educational plan. In such an endeavor the parents of the chil-
dren were also factors, whose help was essential in countless
ways for the successful accomplishment of the experiment.
The focus of all this cooperative endeavor was- the child— his
physical and mental growth in a well-balanced and, therefore,
happy fashion. Along many lines of approach help and sug-
gestion flowed in and were integrated and correlated by the
child's activities. At the request of the authors, Mr. Dewey has
recently made the following comment on the relation of the
theory to the practice in the actual working out of the school.

"In dealing with principles underlying school activities, it
is easy, especially after a lapse of years, to read into a statement
of them what one has learned in subsequent experience. An-
other danger more serious and more difficult to avoid lies in
the gap between any formal statement of principles and ideals
and the way things work out in actual practice; in the tempta-
tion to idealize the latter by assuming a greater conformity
with theoretical principles than is attained. The concrete cir-
cumstances of school life introduce many factors that are not
foreseen and taken account of in theory. This is as formal and
static as the life of teachers and children in school is moving
and vital.

"The principles stated were not intended to serve as definite
rules for what was done in the school. They furnished a point
of View and indicated the direction in which it was to move.
Not merely the concrete material, the subject matter of the
pupils' studies, but the methods of teaching were developed

12 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

in the course of the school's own operations. This development
signifies, of course, that the experience of one year taught
something about what was to be done the next year and how
it was to be better done. But it also meant something more
than this,— material and methods which worked with one group
of children would not give the same results with another group
of supposedly about the same attainments and capacities, and
quite radical changes would have to be introduced in the actual
process of teaching."

The school always faced a serious financial situation. In five
years it had outgrown three buildings, none of which had been
adequately equipped. Because tuition fees had been kept low 5
for the sake of the parents who might otherwise have coveted
in vain such an education for their children, there had been
a yearly deficit. Each year, however, this deficit had been met
by the parents and friends,' staunch supporters of the school
who had caught a vision of its worth and meaning for their
own and other children. At the beginning the University as-
sured Mr. Dewey only the sum of $1,000 to cover the initial
expense. This sum, moreover, was not in cash but in tuitions
of graduate students who were to teach in the school. At the
end of the first six months the generous gift of $1,200 by
Mrs. Charles R. Linn enabled the school to begin anew in the
fall of 1896 with a staff of three teachers. In the years following
funds to cover the deficit were forthcoming from the loyal
group of parents and friends.

In 1902, the Chicago Institute (formerly the Cook County
Normal School of Chicago) heavily endowed by Mrs. Emmons
Blaine, and the University of Chicago consummated a plan
whereby the former became incorporated with the University.
Two other schools had been included in the merger, the
Chicago Manual Training School and the South Side Academy.
The Chicago Institute was primarily a school for training
teachers and was under the leadership of Colonel Francis W.

* Tuition paid in 1901-2 was as follows: for children from four to
six years, $75.00 per year; for older children attending the forenoon session
only, $90.00 per year; for children attending the afternoon session also,
$105.00 per year.

GENERAL HISTORY 13

Parker. The faculty of the Institute numbered thirty-five per-
sons. There were about one hundred students in the pedagogi-
cal and one hundred and twenty in the academic departments,
one of which was an elementary school and kindergarten. The
University accordingly found itself possessing two elementary
schools. One, a practice school for the training of teachers
under the leadership of Colonel Parker, was heavily endowed.
The other, the Laboratory School of the University's Depart-
ment of Pedagogy directed by Mr. Dewey, had no endowment,
but had been, even then, characterized as one of the "greatest
experiments in education ever carried on." Both schools were
progressive; both had made outstanding contributions to the
principles and practice of education. But while similar in
these larger aspects of general purpose, the two schools differed
rather widely in theory, method, and practice.

For the solution of the problem thus presented, various plans
,had been discussed by the President and Trustees of the Uni-
versity. Of these, two plans only seemed feasible. The first was
to continue both schools as separate organizations; one, the
Dewey School, to be a laboratory of the Department of Pedagogy
of the University, the other to be a practice school for the
training of elementary teachers. The difficulty, which seemed
to make this plan impracticable, was the lack of endowment
for the Dewey School. The only solution, apparently, was the
second plan— merging the two schools. It had also been pro-
posed that if the two elementary schools were merged, a new
secondary school should be formed by combining the South
Side Academy and the Chicago Manual Training School.
Mr. Dewey was to be head of this secondary school, and it was
to be regarded as part of the University's Department of
Pedagogy so long as Mr. Dewey remained in charge of that
Department. At the same time this secondary school was to be
carried on in connection with the transplanted Chicago In-
stitute.

The President and his Committee of Administrators, not
having followed closely the development of the Laboratory
School, made a serious error of judgment in supposing that
the plan of merging the two elementary schools, so different in

i4 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

theory and method, would seem advisable or welcome to the
parents, teachers, or administrators of the Dewey School. All
parents, teachers, and administrators were in accord in their
opinions that both schools would suffer from such procedure,
and that the Dewey School, being the smaller, and bereft of
its leader, would be swallowed up and lost in the larger school.
Therefore, after much discussion and planning, they secured
the permission of the University authorities to continue the
school separately, under the official name of the Laboratory
School of the University of Chicago, provided they could raise
and guarantee to the University for the space of three years
the sum of $5,000 annually. A committee of parents, fired with
zeal to save the school, raised this amount in a comparatively
short time with pledges for the years to come, and for one
year longer the school continued at the same place and under
the same administration as before.

During this year (1903), however, Colonel Parker died, and
negotiations for the amalgamation of the two schools were
again resumed and finally consummated. Mr. Dewey accepted
the directorship of the School of Education with his under-
standing that the regular teaching and administrative staff of
the Laboratory School was to be taken over by the School of
Education and was to continue in office indefinitely. The
Laboratory School accordingly moved into the newly com-
pleted School of Education building in the fall of 1903, and
the School of Education then became the united faculties,
students, and administration of four schools, The Chicago
Institute, The Chicago Manual Training School, The Uni-
versity of Chicago Laboratory School, and the South Side
Academy.

It seems fitting at this point to quote briefly an address by
Mr. Dewey on the occasion of the first combined meeting of
the parents of the four schools which had joined forces to
become the School of Education. Upon the background of die
history of these four schools, he states the ideal of the School
of Education as he conceived it: 6

e John Dewey, "Significance of the School of Education," The Elementary
School Teacher f March, 1904.

GENERAL HISTORY 15

"The significance of the School of Education, put in terms of
its origin, lies in the bringing together of all factors of the
educational problem. ... It now incarnates in itself all the
elements which constitute the theoretical educational problem
of the present. In other words, we have right here in concrete,
actual institutional form all the factors which any writer on
education of the present day would lay down as involved in the
problem of education. We have the so-called practical and
utilitarian element. This comes not merely from the Chicago
Manual Training School, but from the stress laid from the
first in the Cook County Normal School (Chicago Institute)
upon manual training, and the important place given in the
Laboratory School to social occupations. Thus the motor, die
executive side of the individual is appealed to. The School of
Education recognizes that an "all-around education" is a mere
name if it leaves out of account direct interest in seeing things
and in doing things. The so-called practical and utilitarian
factor is thus here not an isolated and independent thing, but
the utilization of an otherwise wasted (and hence perverted)
source of energy. But the School also stands for the most
thorough-going recognition of the importance of scientific and
cultural elements in education. Moreover, the School stands
for these things, not merely within its own structure, but
through the training of teachers and the promulgation of sound
educational theory for educational progress and reform far
beyond itself. . . . To have initiated these distinct and in-
dependent portions of an educational system represented here,
was a great achievement. To stop here, not to recognize the
growth that may come from their fusing into a vital whole,
would be a calamity all the greater because of what has been
achieved in the past. . . .

"Such growth can only come as a result of the cooperative
effort of teachers, parents, and children. There is one kind of
coeducation to which no one takes objections— one which is
absolutely indispensable if the future of the school is to be
as significant as its own past exacts of it. This coeducation of
teachers, children, and parents by one another. I say by one
another rather than with one another, for I think that coeduca-

i6 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

tion is not the passive reception of the same instruction side
by side, but the active participation in the education of one
by others. If the School is to move along steadily and as a
whole within itself, it must be because it moves along with a
body of parents who have intrusted their children to it, and
because in turn the parents move along sympathetically with
the endeavors, experiments, and changes of the school it-
self. . . .

"In spite of all the advances that have been made through-
out the country, there is still one unsolved problem in ele-
mentary and secondary education. That is the question of duly
adapting to each other the practical and utilitarian, the ex-
ecutive and the abstract, the tool and the book, the head and
the hand. This is a problem of such vast scope that any
systematic attempt to deal with it must have great influence
upon the whole course of education everywhere. The School of
Education, both in its elementary and secondary departments,
is trying to make its contribution to this vexed question. Utility
and culture, absorption and expression, theory and practice,
are indispensable elements in any educational scheme. But, as
a rule, they are pursued apart. As already indicated, the dif-
ferent schools which have entered into combination here make
it necessary for the School of Education to fuse hitherto sep-
arated factors. In this attempt we shall need your sympathetic
intelligence. . . .

"In the second place, I wish to enlist your sympathy with the
social ideals and spirit which must prevail in the School of
Education, if it is to be true to its own past. We trust, and
shall continue to trust, to the social spirit as the ultimate and
controlling motive in discipline. We believe, and our past ex-
perience warrants us in the belief, that a higher, more effective,
more truly severe type of personal discipline and government
may be secured through appeal to the social motives and in-
terests of children and youth than to their antisocial ones. . . .
It must be possible on some other basis to secure and main-
tain a wholesome social and moral spirit in the school. It can-
not be too definitely stated that it is only to this class that the

GENERAL HISTORY 17

School of Education wants to appeal for members of its stu-
dent body. . . . The moral and social influence which the
members of the student body exert upon each other is far more
potent for good in the long run than any device that teachers
can set up and keep going; and the presence or absence of this
influence must go back largely to home influences and sur-
roundings.

"The School of Education wishes particularly, then, the co-
operation of parents in creating a healthy moral tone which
will render quite unnecessary resort to lower and more un-
worthy motives for regulating conduct, in the cultivation of a
democratic tone, an esprit-de-corps, which attaches itself to the
social life of the school as a whole, and not to some clique
or set in it, ... May we remind you that a school has a
corporate life of its own; that, whether for good or bad, it
is itself a genuine social institution— a community. The in-
fluences which center in and radiate from this corporate social
life are infinitely more important with respect to the moral
development of your children than is simply class-room in-
struction in the abstract. May I close with an exhortation to
bear in mind the fundamental importance to yourselves and
to your children, as well as to the School, of the maintenance
of the right sort of social aims and spirit throughout the school
as a whole."

These words seemed to promise a new era of fulfilment and
expansion for the ideals of the Laboratory School. Those who
had piloted this ship on its seven-year voyage of discovery
thought at last they had found fair sailing. It proved, how-
ever, only a brief season of good passage, for Mr. Dewey's
resignation followed in the spring of 1904. This action was
quite as unpremeditated on his part as it was unexpected to
his associates. Early in the spring he was told that at the time
of the merging of the four schools assurances had been given
to the Trustees of the Chicago Institute that certain members
of the administrative staff of the elementary school would be
eliminated at the close of the first year after the merger. Mr.
Dewey had been entirely ignorant of these assurances, found

i8 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

himself unable to accept them and resigned, first as Director
of the School of Education and shortly after as Head of the
Departments of Philosophy, Psychology, and Pedagogy.

Only the passing of time has made it possible to state the
reasons for this unhappy ending to so many relationships and
undertakings. With the resignation of Mr. Dewey and the
subsequent dispersal of all save three or four of the faculty of
the Laboratory School, this experiment in education ended.
The brief year of union with the School of Education at Chi-
cago marked the close of the career of the Laboratory School,
as the present School of Education can in no sense be regarded
as the heir of either its purposes or its methods. There are
many progressive schools which have extended the work of the
Dewey School along certain lines, but nowhere has its closely
knit social organization of children, parents, teachers in a uni-
versity laboratory been achieved. Owing perhaps to the mech-
anized character of American life; there has been a distinct
failure on the part of modern progressive schools to appreciate
what the fundamental occupations of living— cooking, sewing,
carpentry, and all principal manual- training activities— may do
when clarified and organized as a means, par excellence, of
preserving the investigative attitude and the creative ability
of the growing child in socially directed expression. Day by
day he gains both in his skill to control situations and to
direct his own activity to further and more desired ends; he
also becomes gradually conscious of his gain. This results in
an integrated child, able to work more and more on his own
initiative and under his own guidance— a child who is matur-
ing, who is both educating and being educated, and whose
education continues throughout life.

When the four schools united, there were, from the Labora-
tory School, a number of children who had received in that
school practically all of their education. Although their cur-
riculum had always been different from that of the children
of the other schools, it was said of them a few months later,
"Either these are exceptional children, or they have been ex-
ceptionally trained." They were, however, like other children
of varying degrees of ability and types of temperament. They

GENERAL HISTORY 19

were exceptional only as they represented a group of parents
who had caught a vision of a sort of education which they
desired to have their children experience.

The sense of frustration with which these parents viewed
the apparent shipwreck of their high hopes was to some degree
lessened by the conviction that what they had desired had been
for a brief time fulfilled. As the years passed they grew more
and more comforted by the fact that what had seemed to die,
continued to live, and was extending its influence throughout
America, and even to foreign lands, such as China, and Mexico;
to the early schools of Soviet Russia and to those of many
European countries.

CHAPTER II

EXPERIMENTAL BASIS OF
CURRICULUM

-LHE Laboratory School was both a department of the Uni-
versity and a place where parents sent children to be educated.
As such it required conditions which would insure freedom
for investigation on the one hand, and normal development for
child life on the other. This meant the planning of a curricu-
lum which was not static in character, but one which minis-
tered constantly to the changing needs and interests of the
growing child's experience. It involved careful arrangement of
the physical and social set-up of the school and a discriminat-
ing search for subject-matter which would fulfil and further
the growth of the whole child. It meant study and 6bservation
in order that the materials and agencies used to present this
subject-matter should be in agreement with the child's chang-
ing attitudes and abilities, and would link what was valuable
in his past experience to his present and his future. It required
experimentation as to classroom methods in the use of this
material so that it entered vitally into growth in such a way
that control gained by the child in one situation might be
carried on to the next, thus insuring continuity of experience,
a habit of initiative, and an increasing skill in the use of the
experimental method. As a child's social growth is largely a
matter of adaptation to group relations, it was of primary
importance that the subject-matter selected should be social
in character and thus give free play to the child's group be-
havior and guide the expression of his individual interests
toward social ends. It was important that the guidance should
be of such a character that the child never felt imposed upon

EXPERIMENTAL BASIS OF CURRICULUM 21

by adult standards, but developed his own standards out of
habitual social behavior, that is, behavior free from conscious
competition or biased criticism of others' products.

The task that lay before those who worked out the educa-
tional implications of these newly formed theories was a dif-
ficult one. It was difficult because it necessitated the discard-
ing of many established methods of teaching and learning. It
meant the careful study of the story of education, especially of
those periods and types of civilization when there was no rift
between experience and knowledge, when information about
things and ways of doing grew out of social situations and
represented answers to social needs, when the education of
the immature member of society proceeded almost wholly^
through participation in the social or community life of which*'
he was a member, and each individual, no matter how young,
did certain things in the way of work and play along with
others, and learned, thereby, to adjust himself to his surround-
ings, to adapt himself to social relationships, and to get control
of his own special powers.

"He must learn by experience" is an old adage too little
heeded by modern methods of schooling. Too often these meth-
ods take for granted that there is a short cut to learning, and
that knowledge apart from its use has meaning for the develop-
ing mind. The memorizing of such knowledge has come to be
a large part of present-day education, with the result that great
masses of young lives have been denied the thrill of experi-
mental living, of finding the way for themselves, of discovery,
of invention, of creation. The fine aspiring tendril of child-
hood's native curiosity, like the waving tip of a growing vine,
seeks the how and why of doing— its intellectual food. It is
early stunted in many children. The strong urge to investigate,
present in every individual, is often crushed by the memorizing
of great masses of information useless to him, or the learning
of skills that he is told may be useful to him in the far-away
future, the sometime, and the somewhere. Only those in whom
the urge to know will not be denied break away into new
trails by virtue of individual and experimental effort, and
when directed in the use of the scientific method, climb to the

22 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

highest peaks of living; the majority travel a wide made-easy
way of schooling into a dead level of mediocrity.

It was necessary, therefore, for these experimenters in a new
practice to ignore and forget certain practices and precepts of
the old psychology. They must hold steadily before their mental
eyes the newer psychological principles and chart a course of
pedagogical thinking and practice. This new psychology recog-
nized that the normal functioning mind of the child cannot
operate or develop alone in a physical world. It requires, in
addition to the continual stimulus of first-hand experience,
that of contact with other minds and social agencies, and of
recourse to the accumulated knowledge and past experience of
the race. In other words, educative schooling must furnish a
social and intellectual as well as a physical environment, in
which the child may become increasingly familiar with all
kinds of relationships and be trained to consider them so far
as is necessary in his individual and experimental activities. In
general, the problem and purpose of this new type of school-
ing was, first of all, to aid the child to develop his own in-
dividuality by expression of his ideas in deed as well as in
word, and thus become a freely maturing person. Always,
however, it was an important duty of those guiding this process
to help the child gradually to shape his expressions to social
ends, and thus make them, through his growing control, more
and more effective in the corporate life of the group.

Such free use of his powers by every child presupposes that
he be studied and understood. Those planning the activities
must see each child as an ever changing person, both because
of what he undertakes and undergoes in his social group, and
because of the changing needs of the succeeding stages of his
development. They must carefully select and grade the ma-
terials used, altering such selection, as is necessary in all ex-
perimentation, in accord with the available materials, whether
at hand or remote.

The plan for the life of the school, in this experiment of
education, was a simplified and ordered continuation of the
life of the home. In this environment, both new and familiar,
the child, conscious of no break in his experience, could learn

EXPERIMENTAL BASIS OF CURRICULUM 23

to become a useful member of a larger social group. Guided
and stimulated to social action, he would naturally judge the
value of his action by the responses of others. He gets the feel
and the thrill of using his individual powers for social ends
and becomes more and more expert in making his contribu-
tion socially effective. Cooperative effort involves interest in
and consideration of others; he more and more naturally be-
comes alert to their needs and generous to share with them his
opportunities. An increasing fund of personally tested knowl-
edge accumulates from these experiments in human relation-
ships and becomes the foundation upon which he builds his
future social ideals. Increasing confidence in himself as the
guiding agent of his activities makes him a recognized and
responsible member of the group with the result that he is an
increasingly integrated and happy child, because he is satisfied,
adjusted to, and helpful in the control and modification of his
physical and social environments.

In the ideal back of the plan two cardinal principles were
held in mind. First, in all educative relationships the starting
point is the impulse of the child to action, his desire respond-
ing to the surrounding stimuli and seeking its expression in
concrete form. Second, the educational process is to supply
the materials and the positive and negative conditions— the let
and hindrance— so that his expression, intellectually controlled,
may take a normal direction that is social in both form and
feeling. These principles determined the entire school's opera-
tion and organization, as a whole and in detail. Study and
performance of the basic and simplified occupations of life
taught teachers and children how to do. In finding how to do,
sense became alert to note and select materials to do with.
Interest made minds receptive to facts and the best ways of
doing. Knowledge became the child of experience, and the way
of learning an alluring one. It was, however, often a difficult
one to find. There were many false leads followed, but in the
end a faint trail was made to which the hope still clings that
it may prove the pathway to the promised land.

Starting with the activities familiar and natural to little
children (fundamental and familiar activities of the home),

24 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

the school conceived itself as an institution intermediate be-
tween the home and the larger school organization of the com-
munity, growing naturally out of the one and into the other.
All activity having to do with such basic and continuing needs
of life as shelter, clothing, and food became the central focus
of a developing curriculum. With this unifying factor, all life,
whether of the home, school, or larger community, was seen
as one and the same continuous, changing social life. Similarly
the infant, the school child, and the grown man were recog-
nized as one and the same, though changing, individual. In
consequence, the story of the corporate life of this school is a
biography, for it was as truly a living, growing organism as
was any of its smaller or larger members.

In the informal address to the parents and teachers toward
the close of the third year of the school, Mr. Dewey gave a
somewhat detailed account of the practices of the school in
relation to its theoretical principles. Extracts from the steno-
graphic notes of the address serve to give a bird's-eye view of
the way in which the studies and activities of its curriculum
were related or grew out of the daily experience of the chil-
dren. These extracts are supplemented by portions of a circular
published during the school's first year,1

"When the school was started, there were certain points
which it seemed worth while to test—four questions, or prob-
lems in mind. First, what can be done, and how can it be done,
to bring the school, now a place where the child comes, learns
certain lessons, and then goes home, into closer relation with
the home and neighborhood life; how bridge the gap, and
break down the traditional barriers, which unfortunately now
separate the school from the rest of the child's everyday life?
This does not mean, as sometimes interpreted, that the child
should study in school things he already has learned at home,
but that, so far as possible, he should take the same attitude
and point of view at school as at home; that he should feel
the same interest in going to school because he finds there
things worth doing for their own sake and just as interesting as

i John Dewey, "The University Elementary School, Studies and Methods/'
University Record, May 31, 1897.

EXPERIMENTAL BASIS OF CURRICULUM 25

the plays and occupations of his home and neighborhood.
Again, the same motives which keep the child at work and
growing should be used in the school as in the home, so that
he shall not feel that he has one set of reasons which belongs
to the school and another which is used in the home.

"Second, how can history and science and art be introduced
so that they will be of positive value and have real significance
in the child's own present experience? How can they be made
to represent, even to the youngest child, something worthy of
attainment in skill or knowledge; something just as worthy
to him because it is, at his level, as truly satisfying intellectually
and emotionally as anything a high school or college student
might be able to get at his period of education? It is true, many
modifications have been made in the traditional primary cur-
riculum of most schools. Statistics recently collected, however,
show that seventy-five to eighty per cent of the first years of a
child in school is spent upon the form, not the substance of
learning; is given to the mastering of the symbols of read-
ing, writing, and arithmetic. There is not much positive nutri-
ment in this. Its purpose is important, but it does not represent
the same kind of addition or increase in a child's whole in-
tellectual and moral experience that is represented by the posi-
tive subject-matter, now postponed to the later years of the
child's education. One purpose, then, of the experiment is to
see how much can be given to the child of the experiences of
the world about him that is really worth his while to get; how
far first-hand experience with the forces in that world and
knowledge of its historical and social growth will enable him
to develop the capacity to express himself in a variety of artistic
forms. From the strictly educational side this has been the chief
problem of the school. It is along this line that we hope to
make our chief contribution to education in general. To this
end, those subjects which have a positive content and intrinsic
value of their own, and which call forth the inquiring and
constructive attitude on the part of the pupil are made the
core of the school work.

"In the third place, how can instruction in the formal,
symbolic branches of learning—the mastering of the ability

26 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

to read, write, and use figures Intelligently— be gained out of
other studies and occupations as their background? How can
the child be made to regard symbols as instruments and meth-
ods needful in his study of those subjects which appeal to him
on their own account? It is clear that need, when felt by the
child, would supply the motive for getting technical capacity,
and the question of the adjustment of these two sides of the
work would be solved. It is not the purpose, as has been stated,
of this school that the child learn to bake and sew at school,
and to read, write, and figure at home. It is true, however, that
these subjects of reading, writing, etc., are not presented dur-
ing the early years in large doses. Instead, the child is led by
other means to feel the motives for acquiring skill in the use
of these symbols, motives which persist when competition,
often the only motive in the early years of many schools, ceases.
In this school, as well as in all schools, if a child realizes the
motive for acquiring skill, he is helped in large measure to
secure the skill. Books and the ability to read are, therefore,
regarded strictly as tools. The child must learn to use these,
just as he would any other tools. This implies that he shall
have arrived at some conception of what they are for and have
some end in view or motive for using them, and that the actual
learning to read shall grow out of this motive. Accordingly, no
special effort is made to teach children to read in the sixth
year, or even in the seventh, unless the indications are that
the child is awakening to his needs in that direction. The pre-
mature teaching of reading, in the present school system, in-
volves undue strain on the eyes and the nervous system, takes
time away from subjects which have a positive content, and
devotes it to a purely formal study, which the child can master
with much less strain and more quickly when he is ready for
it. The aim is thus to familiarize the child with the use of
language as a means of discovering something otherwise un-
known and of sharing with others what he himself has found
out. Hence reading is taught in close connection with other
subjects, science and history, not as a subject by itself. As soon
as the child has an idea what reading is for and has a certain
amount of technical facility, printed material is supplied him,

EXPERIMENTAL BASIS OF CURRICULUM 27

not as a text-book, but as an additional tool in his equipment.
The prevalent use of text-books has two evils. First, the child
forms a habit of depending upon them and comes almost in-
stinctively to assume that the book is the chief, if not the only
way, of getting information. Then, the use of books, as texts,
throws the mind into a passive and absorbing attitude. The
child is learning instead of inquiring.

"In the fourth place, individual attention is secured by small
groupings of children and a large number of teachers, who
attempt to supervise systematically the intellectual and phys-
ical work of the child. This insures attention, so far as those
in charge are capable of giving it, to the general well-being
and development of each child. It also enables them to carry
on in connection with school work a certain amount of in-
vestigation of the psychological and physiological needs and
powers of individual children. . . .

'The use of the hand, and other motor organs in connection
with the eye, is the great instrument through which the chil-
dren most easily and naturally gain experience and come in
contact with the familiar materials and processes of ordinary
life. It affords unrivalled means for securing and holding at-
tention. It is full of opportunities for cultivating the social
spirit through the opportunities it affords for division of labor
and mutual cooperation, and supplies the child with motives
for working in ways positively useful to the community of
which he is a member. The use of the hand is again the best
possible instrument for cultivating habits of industry and con-
tinuity in work, and of securing personal deftness and dexterity
at the plastic period. When conducted in a free instead of
mechanical spirit, it develops more than any other one in-
strumentality, ingenuity in planning and power in execution.
The constant testimony is that nothing compares with it as
a means of arousing the child to a positive sense of his own
power, and of encouraging him in expression and construc-
tion. Furthermore, such training affords constantly recurring
opportunities for related work in other directions. Cooking,
for example, is a natural avenue of approach to simple but
fundamental chemical facts and principles and to a study of

s>8 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

the plants as articles of food. Similarly, a study of the ma-
terials and processes involved is carried on in connection with
sewing, and includes a study of the history of invention, of
geography (localities of production and manufacturing, with
lines of distribution), and of the growth and cultivation of
plants, like cotton and flax which furnish the raw material.
Recourse to measurement is had in these subjects. The car-
pentry work, in particular, constantly calls for calculation and
gives the child a command of numerical processes in a related
way, and a genuine number sense is thus cultivated. Three
main lines of manual training are pursued regularly, shop-
work with wood and tools, the cooking, and the work with
the textile fabrics. There is also much other hand-work in-
cident to the experimental sciences. Indeed experience verifies
the statement that hand-work, in variety and amount, is the
most easy and natural of all ways to keep an attitude of com-
bined effort and interest on the part of the child. The purpose,
therefore, of those teaching and directing is to direct these
activities, to systematize and organize them so that they shall
not be as haphazard and wandering as they customarily are in
child's play and home life. One of the most difficult problems
is to enable the children to work continuously and definitely,
and to help them pass from one phase of an activity to another.
"Carpentry, cooking, sewing, and weaving— all require dif-
ferent sorts of skill and represent, as well, some of the most
important industries of the everyday outside world. The ques-
tions of living under shelter, of living in a home, of daily food
and clothing, of protection through the home, and the support
of life through food are basic things for all higher civilization.
A child's interests are so direct and immediate that these things
appeal to him. He gets through such activities, also, a training
of the sense organs, of touch, of eye, and the ability to co-
ordinate hand and eye. They furnish, as well, a healthy sort
of exercise. They are more natural to child life than to keep
continually quiet, to work at a book, or to engage in more
formal modes of action. In addition, there is a continual ap-
peal to memory, to judgment in adapting ends to means. Train-

EXPERIMENTAL BASIS OF CURRICULUM 29

ing in habits of order, of industry, and of neatness in the care
of tools, or utensils are also by-products, for the child gets at
things in a systematic instead of a haphazard way.

"All the children (boys and girls being treated alike) have
cooking, sewing, and carpentry, besides incidental work with
paper and pasteboard. From one to two hours a week are given
to sewing, cooking, and carpentry respectively. Each group of
children prepares its own luncheon once a week, being re-
sponsible for the setting of the table, reception of guests, and
the serving of the meal. This is found to afford a positive
motive for the cooking, as well as to give it a social value. In
the carpentry shop no rigid series of exercises is followed. The
aim is to adapt the tools and materials to the muscular and
mental power of the child. The things made are, in the first
place, the articles needed in the school work. For example,
wands, dumb-bell racks, and wand-racks have been made for
the gymnasium, and simple balances, with lead weights, test-
tube racks, and simple experimental apparatus, for the labora-
tory. All of this active individual experience makes a back-
ground, especially in the earlier groups, for the later studies.
Children get a good deal of chemistry in connection with cook-
ing, of number-work and geometrical principles in connection
with their theoretical work in carpentry, and quite an amount
of geography very easily and naturally in connection with sew-
ing. History enters in as the story of industrial development
and growth of various inventions.

"Upon the whole, greater attention has been given to the
relation of the positive subject-matter to the activity program,
than to any other one aspect. History is introduced at a very
early period and is conducted on the principle that it is a
means of affording the child insight into social life. It is treated,
therefore, not as a record of something which is past and gone,
but as a way of realizing what enters into the make-up of
society and of how society has grown to be what it is. Treated
thus, as a mode of insight into social life, great emphasis is
laid upon the typical relations of humanity to nature, as
summed up in the development of food, shelter, habitation,

3o THE DEWEY SCHOOL

clothing, and industrial occupations. This affords insight into
the fundamental processes and instruments which have con-
trolled the development of civilization and also affords natural
and frequent opportunities for adjusting the work in history to
that in manual training on the one side, and to science on the
other.

"The younger children begin with the home and the occupa-
tions of the home. In the sixth year (of the child) these lead
to a study of the occupations outside the home, the larger
social industries—farming, mining, lumbering—that they may
see the complex and various occupations on which life de-
pends. They experiment with raw materials, with the various
metals and observe materials new to them, noting what they
are like and their uses. This makes a beginning of scientific
study.

"The following year takes up the historical development
of industry and invention. Starting with man as a savage, the
typical phases of his progress upward are followed, until the
iron age is reached when man has begun to enter upon a civi-
lized career. The object of this study of the primitive period
is not to keep the child in the primitive period, but rather to
show him the steps of progress and development, especially
along the line of invention, by which man was led into civiliza-
tion. There is a certain nearness, after all in the child, to
primitive forms of life. It is much more simple, and by throw-
ing emphasis on the progress of man and the way advances took
place, it is hoped to avoid the objections that are made, and
validly so, of paying too much attention to savage life,

"It is at this point that the study of history, as such, really
begins, as the story of primitive life cannot properly be called
history. In the school about this time a year was given to the
world wide explorations and discoveries, which developed an
idea of the world as a whole and served as an introduction to
the history of the settlements in America. Study of the early
fur traders of North America, who established the trade routes,
led naturally to the settlement of Chicago. This with some
local history prefaced the general American history of the next
two or three years. Greek and Roman history were then in-

EXPERIMENTAL BASIS OF CURRICULUM 31

troduced, and finally, the regular chronological order of the
development of civilization is adopted.

"As regards the study of literature, perhaps the most striking
departure from methods pursued in other progressive schools
is that literature is regarded as a social expression. It is ap-
proached, therefore, through the medium of history, instead
of studying history through the medium of literature. This
method puts the latter subject in its proper perspective, and
avoids the danger of distracting and over-stimulating the child
with stories which to him (however they may be to the adult)
are simply stories. In developing the work upon Greek life,
for example, it was found that practically all the books for
children are composed from the strictly literary side. Many
of them in addition make the myth fundamental, instead of
an incident to the intellectual and social development of the
Greek people.

"Both nature study (that is the study through observation of
obvious natural phenomena) and experimental work are in-
troduced from the beginning. The science is very much more
difficult to arrange and systematize. There is so little to follow,
so little that has been already done. It is impossible to exag-
gerate this statement. The slight amount of work in science
that has been developed in any systematic way for the use of
children, which purposes to cultivate their powers of noting
the habits of plants and animals and of observing things with
reference to their uses, is almost negligible. The earth is, per-
haps, the focus for the science study as practically all of the
work relates to it sooner or later, and in one way or another.

"Children of six as well as those of ten work in the labora-
tory, and with equal profit, both as regards the development
of their intelligence and the acquisition of skill and dexterity
in manipulation. The attempt is not to give them analytic
knowledge of objects or minute formulations of scientific prin-
ciples, either of which are incomprehensible to a child of this
age. The object is to arouse his spirit of curiosity and investiga-
tion and awaken him to a consciousness of the world in which
he lives, to train the powers of observation, to instil a practical
sense of methods of inquiry, and gradually to form in the mind

32 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

images of the typical moving forces and processes involved in
all natural change. The results thus far show an eager and
definite response to this mode of approach.

"Another aspect of the science studied is the application of
natural forces to the service of man through machines. Last
year a good deal of work was done in electricity, based on the
telegraph and the telephone. Things that could easily be
grasped were taken up. In mechanics, they have studied locks
and clocks with reference to the adaptation of the various parts
of the machinery to accomplish their work. Cooking also gives
opportunity for unconscious absorption of a great many me-
chanical ideas of heat and water. In general, the scientific work
in this school differs from that of other schools in having the
experimental part of both physics and chemistry emphasized.
It does not confine the science work to nature study, the study
of plants and animals. This does not imply, that the latter is
less valuable, but does maintain that physical science should
be brought into the program from the first, by introducing
larger generalizations in a story form.

"As regards the spirit of the school, the chief object is to
secure a free and informal community life in which each child
will feel that he has a share and his own work to do. This is
made the chief motive towards what are ordinarily termed
order and discipline. It is believed that the only genuine order
and discipline are those which proceed from the child's own
respect for the work which he has to do and his consciousness
of the rights of others who are, with himself, taking part in
this work. As already suggested, the emphasis in the school
upon various forms of practical and constructive activity gives
ample opportunity for appealing to the child's social sense
and to his regard for thorough and honest work.

"Genuine, as distinct from artificial, moral growth is meas-
ured by the extent to which children practically recognize in
the school the same moral motives and relations that obtain
outside. This can be secured only when the school contains the
social conditions and presents the flexible, informal relations
that prevail in everyday life. When school duties and responsi-
bilities are of a sort found only in the school, comparatively

EXPERIMENTAL BASIS OF CURRICULUM 33

little aid is secured for the all-round healthy development of
character. When school conditions are so rigid and formal as
not to parallel anything outside the school, external order and
decorum may be secured, but there is no guarantee of right
growth in directions demanded by the ordinary walks of life.
When what is expected of children is based on the require-
ments of school lessons and school order, as laid down by text-
book or teacher, not by work of positive value to those doing
it, external habits of attention and restraint may be formed,
but not power of initiative and direction, nor moral self-
control. Hence the emphasis in the school laid upon social oc-
cupations, which continue and reinforce those of life outside
the school, and the comparative freedom and informality ac-
corded the children. These are means, not an end. Moral re-
sponsibility is secured only by corresponding freedom. Hence
the school work on the moral side is to be judged, not by pass-
ing external occurrences or external evidences or attitudes, but
by its efficiency in promoting healthy growth of character in
the child and a general modification of disposition and motive,
both of which are slow processes and not sudden transforma-
tions.

"For genuine intellectual development it is impossible to
separate the attainment of knowledge from its application. The
divorce between learning and its use is the most serious defect
of our existing education. Without the consciousness of ap-
plication, learning has no motive to the child. Material thus
learned is separated from the actual conditions of the child's
life, and a fatal split is introduced between school learning
and vital experience— a split which reflects itself in the child's
whole mental and moral attitude. The emphasis in the school
upon constructive and so-called manual work is due largely
to the fact that such occupations connect themselves easily and
naturally with the child's everyday environment. They create
natural motives for the acquiring of information and the mas-
tery of related methods through the problems which they
introduce.

"As to methods, the aim is to keep alive and direct the active
inquiring attitude of the child, and to subordinate the amass-

34 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

ing of facts and principles to the development of intellectual
self-control and of power to conceive and solve problems. Im-
mense damage is done whenever the getting of a certain
quantity of information or the covering a certain amount of
ground is made the end, at the expense of mastery by each
child, of a method of inquiry and of reflection. If children can
retain their natural investigating tendencies unimpaired,
gradually organizing them into definite methods of work, when
they reach the proper age, they can master the required amount
of facts and generalizations easily and effectively. Whereas,
when the latter are forced upon them at so early a period as
to crush the natural interest in searching out new truths,
acquiring tends to replace inquiring.

"The social spirit of the school thus furnishes the controlling
moral motive of the child. His own alert inquiring attitude
is his intellectual spur. Along with this goes the possibility
of attention to individuals as such. For purposes of convenience
the children are divided into small groups of eight to twelve
according to the kind of work and the age of the children.
It is expected that the teacher will give attention to the specific
powers and deficiencies of each child, so that the individual
capacities will be brought out, and individual limitations made
good. This attention extends to the physical as well as the in-
tellectual side. Each child receives a personal physical exami-
nation in the gymnasium, and all defects are reported to the
parent in order that the child may have the special exercises
needed to build him up. He also is examined in the psycho-
logical laboratory of the University, with reference to his sense
organs and motor powers. Almost twenty per cent of the chil-
dren in the school have been thus far reported to their parents
as needing either special exercises or the attention of a com-
petent medical specialist to the eyes, ears, or throat.

"The School is often called an experimental school. In one
sense this is the proper name, for it is an experiment school—-
with reference to education and educational problems in which
an attempt is being made to find by experience whether and
how these problems may be worked out, A characteristic of
experiment is change or modification of the original method

EXPERIMENTAL BASIS OF CURRICULUM 35

or plan. There are two points upon which the ideas and policy
of the school have been modified, where the point of view has
changed in process. When the school was small, it was intended
to mix up the children,— the older and the younger— to the
end that the younger might learn unconsciously from the
older. There seemed moral advantages to both, in having the
older assume certain responsibilities in the care of the younger.
As the school grew, it became necessary to abandon this policy
and to group the children with reference to their common
capabilities or store of knowledge. These groups are based not
on ability to read, write, etc., but on the basis of community
of interest, general intellectual capacity and mental alertness,
and the ability to do certain kinds of work. In other ways,
however, children of different groups are still mingling, as they
move about and come in contact with different teachers. Thus
the gap between groups is bridged and the step-ladder system
of the public school avoided. . . .

"The children also meet in general 'assemblies for singing
and for the report of the school work as read by different mem-
bers of the groups. All hear the report of what each group is
doing. This mixture of the ages is also secured by giving to
the older children for a half hour a week, responsibility for
the work of some of the younger groups. This enables them,
especially in hand-work, to enter into the activity of the
younger children by cooperating with them.

"As a result of experience, the other chief modification has
been with regard to specialization on the part of teachers. It
was assumed, at first, that an all-round teacher would be the
best, and perhaps it would be advisable to have one teacher
teach the children in several branches. This theory, however,
has been abandoned, and it has been thought well to secure
teachers who are specialists by taste and training— experts along
different lines. One of the reasons for this modification of the
original plan was the difficulty of getting scientific facts pre-
sented that were facts and truths. It has been assumed that any
phenomenon that interested a child was good enough, and that
if he were aroused and made alert, that was all that could be
expected. It is, however, just as necessary that what he gets

36 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

should be truth and should not be subordinated to anything
else. The training of observation by having the child see wrong
is not so desirable as sometimes it has been thought to be. The
difficulty of getting scientific work presented except by those
who were specialists has led to the change in regard to other
subjects as well.

"On the other hand, however, it has been recognized that,
in the effort to avoid the serious evils of the first situation,
there is a tendency to swing from one extreme to the other.
That when specialists are employed the result is often that
each does his work independently of the other, and the unity
of the child's life is thus sacrificed to the tastes and acquisitions
of a number of specialists. It seemed, however, not a question
of the specialist but of the expert. When manual training, art,
science, and literature are to be taught, it is a physical and
mental impossibility that one person should be competent in
all these lines of work. Superficial work is bound to be done
in some one of them, and the child, through not having a
model of expert workmanship to follow, acquires careless and
imperfect methods of work. The school, accordingly, is en-
deavoring to put the various lines of work in charge of experts
who maintain agreement and harmony through continued con-
sultation and cooperation. When the different studies and oc-
cupations are controlled by reference to the same general
principles, unity of aim and method are secured. The results
obtained justify the belief that the undue separation, which
often follows teaching by specialists, is a result of lack of super-
vision, cooperation, and control by a unified plan."

This principle of guidance by experts referred to by Mr.
Dewey was continued throughout the school's existence and
was fundamental to the plan. Experience showed that the so-
cial spirit of the school successfully avoided the dangers of too
narrow and therefore isolated specialization in subject-matter
and method.

PART II

THE CURRICULUM-SOCIAL OCCUPATIONS

CHAPTER III

EXPERIMENTAL PRACTICES
DEVELOPING THE CURRICULUM

studying the developing curriculum of the Laboratory
School, two periods may be recognized. The practices of the
first period (1896 to 1898) were largely experimental and
guided by the theoretical premises of its hypothesis, native in-
sight as to the nature of children, practical acquaintance with
certain fields of subject-matter, and first-hand experience in
the use of scientific method. Those of the second period (1898
to 1903) grew out of or were revised on the basis of the courses
and methods that had proved successful in the first.

In plannmgji. school, program that was to be an experiment
in cooperative living, the child was the person of first concern.
There were certain theoretical premises in its underlying
hypothesis— certain general principles— which were to be aids
in understanding its purposes and in guiding its practices.

1 "The primary business of school is to train children in co-
operative and mutually helpful living, to foster in them the
consciousness of interdependence, and to help them practically
in making the adjustments that will carry this spirit into overt
deeds. The primary root of all educative activity is in the in-
stinctive, impulsive attitudes and activities of the child. . . .
Accordingly, the numberless spontaneous activities of children,
plays, games, mimic efforts, even the apparently meaningless
motions of infants are capable of educational use, are the
foundation-stones of educational method.

"These individual tendencies and activities are only organized
and exercised through their use in an actual process of co-

ijohn Dewey, "Froebel's Educational Principles,'* Elementary School
Record, No. i, February, 1900.

39

4o THE DEWEY SCHOOL

operative living; the best results follow when such a process
reproduces on the child's plane the typical doings and occupa-
tions of the larger, maturer society into which he is finally
to go forth; and it is only through such productive and creative
use that valuable knowledge is secured and clinched."

FOUR NATIVE IMPULSES

The problem therefore became one of how to utilize the
child's individual tendencies, his original impulses to express
himself with such growing power and skill as to help him
contribute with increasing effectiveness to the life of his group.
For purposes of convenience, these native impulses are roughly
classified and described by Mr. Dewey under four heads: the
social, the constructive, the investigative, and the expressive.

The social impulse of a little child is shown in his desire to
share with his family and others the experiences of his limited
world. This self-centered interest in his own immediate en-
vironment is capable of a continuing expansion; it is the tap-
root of his intellectual life. His desire to tell about things, to
share his ideas with others, takes advantage of all possible ways
of expression and communication and influences his growth
profoundly. The language instinct, the simplest form of the
social expression of a child, is, therefore, a great, perhaps the
greatest, of all educational resources.2

The child's impulse to do, to make— the constructive impulse
—finds expression first in play, in rhythmic movement, in ges-
ture, and make-believe; then becomes more definite and seeks
outlet in shaping raw materials into tangible form and perma-
nent embodiment. As these self-initiated social and construc-
tive efforts of the child, aided by skilful direction from with-
out, are shaped to his own definitely imaged and desired ends,

2 All the expressive arts, modeling, painting, drawing, etc., might be
included either under this heading or that of the constructive impulse.
Mr. Dewey suggests that the impulse to this kind of expression probably
originates in both the social and constructive impulses of the child, that
they are in reality refinements of them. For purposes of convenience,
however, these expressions are grouped under a separate heading of
artistic activities.

PRACTICES DEVELOPING CURRICULUM 41

they result in helpful contributions to the common work and
play. The very sense of having helped out turns back into and
enhances the child's estimate of his own power. He finds for
himself a consummate value in such a realization and is stimu-
lated to further and better efforts. Little by little, a construc-
tive way of acting becomes habitual and results in a developing
experience for the child and for the group, an experience
which is continually refined and enriched as it enlarges day
by day.

The impulse to investigate and experiment is often a com-
bination of the constructive and the conversational impulses.
Hence, in the school, there was no distinction made between
the experimental science for the little children and the work
done in the carpentry shop'. They liked best of all to do things
just to see what would happen. The teacher's part was to con-
trive that one result should lead through one meaning to an-
other, to ever more meaningful results.

The expressive impulse, like the investigative, seems to fol-
low the communicating and constructive impulses; it is their
refinement and full manifestation. All the utensils and ma-
terials necessary to express ideas were, therefore, at hand when
the desire to do so sprang out of the children's activities.

EXPERIMENTAL USE OF NATIVE IMPULSES (FIRST TWO YEARS)

These fourfold desires— to communicate, to construct, to in-
quire, and to express in finer form— are the child's natural
springs for action. His growth depends upon their use and
exercise. The story of the developing curriculum is seen, there-
fore, to be the story of the attempts to meet and utilize these
deep-lying urges to expression and creative effort.

At the start, there was no previous school experience which
had attempted to meet the psychological conditions of learn-
ing implied in the concept of the organic circuit. Only a few
theoretical principles had been formulated by Mr. Dewey
which were privately printed during the fall of 1895. Nor were
there any precedents as to a plan for school organization. The
experience of the first six months, therefore, was largely re-

4s> THE DEWEY SCHOOL

vealing of what not to do. Aims, plans, and methods were, ac-
cordingly, reconsidered, at its close, and on the basis of its suc-
cesses and particularly of its failures, many revisions were made
in the school's curriculum, its organization, and administra-
tion. The school's original purpose still held, namely, to give
each child the opportunity and method for doing those things
he really wanted to do and such guidance in the process that
his concept of their social meaning continually developed.

TYPE OF TEACHER

With the growing realization that the developing program
of the school was a program of related activities, the concep-
tion of the requirements of the teacher in charge of these ac-
tivities, her abilities, natural aptitudes, and training, likewise
took on a different aspect. The need of specialists whose back-
grounds and training had fitted them for teaching certain sub-
jects became apparent. Accordingly, from the beginning, in the
building of such a staff, a specialist in science was included as
a member of the teaching force.

ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULUM THROUGH ACTIVITIES

The addition of elementary nature study or science, of litera-
ture and history, to the three R's of the old curriculum, to-
gether with the multiplication of the means of expression (the
so-called special studies, music, drawing, coloring, modeling)
has disturbed the unity and balance of traditional primary edu-
cation in many school systems. The result has been a confused
and distracted child. To any one in intimate contact with
young children, the glaring lack of continuity in most school
programs, even in many of the better progressive types, seems
quite beyond belief. The continuity that the word growth
implies seems something apart from many teachers' conception
of the nature of school activity. In many advanced private as
well as public schools the young child's day is still compart-
mented into tiny cubicles of time without sufficient care for
either social or intellectual relations. The pressing problem

PRACTICES DEVELOPING CURRICULUM 43

then, even as now, became how to utilize all these subjects and
means of expression in an educative way, how to organize them
about a common center, give them a thread of continuity, and
make each reinforce the others.

A common center was found for the Laboratory School in
the idea of the school-house as a home in which the activities
of social or community life were carried on. The ideal was so
to use and guide the child's interest in his home, his natural
environment, and in himself that he should gain social and
scientifically sound notions of the functions of persons in the
home; of plant and animal, including human life, and their
interdependence; of the sun as the source of all energy; of
heat as a special form of energy used in the home (as in cook-
ing); and of food as stored energy. The materials about him
and the things that were being done to and with them fur-
nished the ideas for the initial start and choice of the activities
which occupied the children in the shop, laboratory, kitchen,
and studios. These ideas were chosen for study not alone be-
cause of their direct, clear, and explicit relationship to the
child's own present environment and experience, but also be-
cause of their indirect, veiled, and implied relationship to the
past out of which present conditions have developed and to
the future which is dependent upon the present. They started
the child in his present, interested him to relive the past, and
in due time carried him on to future possibilities and achieve-
ments in an ever developing experience. In brief, they fur-
nished a thread of continuity because they were concerned with
the fundamental requisites of living.

From the teacher's standpoint, the development of these
ideas afforded occasions and opportunities for the enrichment
and extension of the child's experience in connection with his
activities. The reconstructed story of the building of the homes
of the primitive peoples, as the youngest group imagined and
reenacted it, took on a character as real in historical quality
as the authentic accounts of the homes of the ancient Greeks—
the history learned by older groups. New words and short
sentences, both read and written, added themselves easily to
the vocabularies of the youngest children, while literature

44 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

embodying beauty of the written word was given to them in
myth and story that had to do with the activities they were
carrying on. From the teacher's point of view, the child was
learning art as he drew, daubed, or modeled the idea that urged
him to expression. He, however, unconscious that he was learn-
ing anything, expressed in line or color, clay, wood, or softer
fabric, the thing that in him lay and in so doing, no matter how
crude the result, tasted of those deep satisfactions that attend
all creative effort. Little did the experimenting child realize
that he was studying physics as he boiled down his cane or
maple syrup, watched the crystallization process, the effects of
heat on water, and of both on the various grains used for food.
He reinvented Ab's trap for the sabre-toothed tiger, quite
oblivious that he was rediscovering the use of a certain kind
of lever. The teacher knew, although he did not, that he was
studying the chemistry of combustion as he figured out why
fire burned, or weighed, burned, and weighed again the ashes
from the different woods or coal and compared results. The
coal in the bins in the cellar was traced to the mines and the
fossil plants. The coal beds were located as were all the prod-
ucts used in the activities. From the teacher's standpoint, this
was geology and geography, or biology as the children ex-
amined the seeds, their distribution, and use as food, or the
life of the birds and animals in the open fields. From the child's
standpoint, however, these ideas were interesting facts or skills
that he learned as he went about his various occupations; they
were reflected, as it were, in the series of activities through
which he passed in becoming conscious of the basis of social
life.

In their constructive work the younger groups made their
own jute-board pencil boxes, their book covers, and other arti-
cles needed in the school life. They selected the material for,
measured, cut, and basted the dish towels for their laboratory
kitchen. As they relived imaginatively the life and occupations
of primitive man and reconstructed his environment and needs,
they built into sand or clay or stone their ideas of the types of
shelter used at this stage of life. They rediscovered the best
kind of stone for making the weapons that he needed for pro-

PRACTICES DEVELOPING CURRICULUM 45

tection from the wild animals or the best kind of clay for many
uses in the way of utensils. As a by-product, they learned many
geological facts, the source of the clay from the silt of rivers,
the different kinds of stone, and the reasons for their dif-
ferences.

In the laboratory, the child experimenter boiled water, col-
lected steam, tried to "keep it in," and discovered its power
as well as its heat. Under the same careful guidance, he planted
corn in cotton and in soil; he kept it in the dark or in the light,
in air and in a vacuum, weighing or measuring before and
after, and learning what changes, if any, had been brought
about by the growing plants. In the kitchen, also a laboratory,
he husked, shelled, pounded, ground (for this he had made a
mill in the shop), parched, soaked, and cooked corn which
he had obtained from an interested farmer, when on a visit to
his farm. The weighing and measuring were on scales, in meas-
ures, or with thermometers made by the children themselves.
For the simple reason that they could not weigh or measure
and thus carry on something which claimed both their interest
and effort without knowledge of and skill in the use of the
symbols of weight and measurement, they learned the value of
numbers, quite unaware that they were studying mathematics.
Pints and pounds, halves, quarters, thirds became familiar de-
vices to attain desired ends. The study of social life furnished
the thread of continuity, linking all these modes of experi-
ence—whether constructive or experimental. It had a direct
aspect as revealed in the physical and social environment of the
present or an indirect as in history and literature.

The following is a necessarily brief sketch of the school's
first two years of rapid growth and experimentation. There
were many trials of different types of subject-matter with dif-
ferent groups of children which were discarded as not suitable
either because of the character and training of the teacher,
and the background of the children, or because the materials
and equipment necessary were not available. With the younger
groups, the meaning of the home was developed in detail.
When very young, the child was led to consciousness that it
was the center and source of all things necessary to his well-

46 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

being. In it he found food, shelter, and comfort, all of which
came through the agency of various persons— his mother, his fa-
ther, the milkman, the grocery boy, and others.

He learned that he and his home were dependent upon life
without, particularly the life of the farm. A model farm was
built in a large sand pan, and the study extended itself to what
constitutes a typical farm locality— the kind of land for pasture,
for meadow, or for the grain fields. The process was, of neces-
sity, one of constant sharing by all. The practical methods of
communication, the use of language, of reading, of writing, of
measuring, took on importance in the eyes of the children and
were thus naturally included in their daily program. The
seasonal changes as exhibited in the relation of sun and earth,
the vegetables and animal life, and the occupations of human
life were, of course, constantly emphasized.3

The plan of the year's work was to make the study of social
life the center of attention and to follow its development, in
part at least, from its earliest beginnings through the barbaric
stage to the opening of authentic history. Starting with the
most primitive ways of living, it took up the beginnings and
growth of industry through discovery and invention and their
effect on social life.

The finding of metals was developed differently each year.
Each group discovered the various ores, worked out in their
own way their smelting process and the way in which such
discoveries reacted upon the lives of those concerned. Usually
the discovery of iron was taken up in great detail. Much dis-
cussion disclosed the many uses for this metal and the fact of
its frequent occurrence in many localities. The construction
of miniature smelting places introduced the problems of air
supply and fuel in small bulk and the difficulty of right appli-
cation of heat. Other incidental problems were met and solved.
The kindling point of different materials, which the children
burned in small smelting places, was discovered. The latter
were of necessity tiny kilns rather than the large pit smelting
places of the early metal industry. As they worked, the chil-

« "School Record, Noles, and Plan XXI. The University of Chicago
School," University Record, April 21, 1897.

PRACTICES DEVELOPING CURRICULUM 47

dren thought out the effect this new industry would have upon
the social life of people, as requiring a division of labor, and
attempted to carry out such an organization in their own ef-
forts to work together on a single smelting place, under the
leadership of one person. Great emphasis was laid upon the
development of the metal industry. It was a dramatic picture
of the effect upon civilization of invention and discovery which
resulted in control of the material which is basic to all other
industries. The organization on the social side necessary for
its production gave the children a picture of the beginnings
of our industrial society.4 The subject of the governmental de-
velopment, which had entered incidentally into previous dis-
cussions, was now taken up as a subject by itself. The methods
of transportation, necessitated by the beginning of commerce,
and the barter of the new iron weapons, carried on by the
more advanced tribes, were also discussed.5

In their study of social life, the older children of Groups
V and VI (eight to ten years old) passed through the phases
of primitive living more quickly than the younger groups
and soon came to the period when man had settled into perma-
nent homes. The life of the early Greek peoples was chosen
as forming the easiest transition from the imagined records
of primitive lives to the records of authentic history. Again
there were no precedents to follow, and the question arose as
to how to present history subject-matter to young children.
What would be a good starting point? Again the guiding prin-
ciple answered— it must be something closely related to their
own life and therefore of interest to them. Experiment only
could tell whether this interest lay in the manner of living,
the social and political institutions, commerce, art, literature,
religion, or thought. It was a serious problem to select from

4 Little time was given to the Bronze Age, as but a limited portion of
mankind passed through this stage. This was found to be a mistake. The
greater fusibility of copper and tin, together with the fact that they are
found in a native state (thus making the processes simpler) would have
made a more natural approach to the greater step of the discovery and
use of iron.

s "Report of the University Elementary School," University Record,
February n, 1898.

48 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

all the wealth of collected knowledge that which should prove
of most value for the child.

A beginning was made with social life of the early Greeks.
Their social groupings were studied and questions asked. How
did these come to be, and what were the relations of these so-
cial groups to each other? An attempt was made to trace the
activities of the Greeks and to study their methods of war-
fare, commerce, and political and domestic life. This led to a
study of their fortifications, their weapons, and war chariots,
their ships and methods of navigation, their forms of govern-
ment, and governing officers, the making and execution of their
laws, their homes, schools, farms, and cities. This study of
institutions proved very interesting, but not entirely satis-
factory. Full interest was lacking. The difficulty seemed to be
that all these things persisted in remaining objective and far
away from the children in spite of the fact that they had once
had to do with the reality of living. The work was too abstract
and detailed for this age of development, too formal and too
remote from present personal interest. The dynamic quality
was lacking, that which made life moving and vital. It did
not furnish images enough. What was to be done?

Again, the recent past experience seems to have been scru-
tinized for a suggestion of the next best step. These children
were already thoroughly familiar with the myths of Greece so
these did not seem to demand further attention. The line of
approach lay somewhere between the myth-tale and such a
study of Greek life as already had been attempted. This was
finally found in what might be called a study of Greek char-
acters. The myth and the organization of a Greek home were
left almost wholly out of account, and a study was made of
the great men of Greece, for in their deeds, shared by the whole
nation, the common life of Greece found its best and most
complete expression.

Interest in individuals is strong in children of this age. It is
the period when they revel most in their own newly discovered
individuality. Early peoples have the same experience. Their
history is the history of heroes, and it is not less history be-
cause it takes the form of biography in which the emotional

PRACTICES DEVELOPING CURRICULUM 49

life of a whole people is expressed, so clearly and concisely
that it is readily grasped by the child.

The children gleaned much of the material for this study
themselves, did almost all of their own reading, and repro-
duced on paper many of the tales of the Iliad, the Odyssey,
Herodotus, and Plutarch. The events and persons involved
were never to them mere historical happenings of a long time
ago or characters who were dead and gone. They were living
men and women anxious to do certain things to and with
other men and women. As the study progressed, there was a
gradual passage from the concern of a single hero to those -of
a people who desire a common end and, therefore, act co-
operatively. The gradual growth of people led by inspired in-
dividuals to the common aims and united efforts of a corporate
group is richly illustrated by Greek development and formed
a basis of transition to the story of the organization and ad-
ministration of the corporate life of the Roman people.

A study of the social life of the Romans had already been
attempted with a younger Group (ten years), but here again
experience proved the children were too immature to ap-
preciate enough of the definite contribution made by this
civilization to make the study worth their while. On the back-
ground, however, of their study of the development of the
Greek community life, it was hoped that these older children
might become familiar with the trend of historical events and
gain pictures of the social life of the times and the political
evolution of a state. On the whole, however, this second ex-
periment also was not wholly a success and did not warrant
another trial with children of this age. The study of the Roman
state was finally developed more satisfactorily in the later
years with older children.6

For all groups during these two years the science work was
a study of the plant as something which does work.7 Attention
was first directed accordingly to the active functions, such as

e Group IX (thirteen to fourteen years), Teacher, E. C. Moore, Uni-
versity Record, December 16, 1898.

7 Course outlined by John M. Coulter, and under direction of Katherine
Andrews.

5o THE DEWEY SCHOOL

breathing and circulation, and the analysis of structure was
made simply to locate the parts which do the work. The
younger children, as compared with the older, showed a much
keener interest in this observational work and preferred it to
the experimental. Their drawings and records evidenced more
freedom and less formality in their habits of noticing and re-
cording. The older children studied the adaptation of plants
to their environment. This included the different species
found in different soils, and at different elevations, and
brought out the relation of moisture to plant growth. A vacant
lot was selected; the character of the soil in the high and in
the low places was studied; and the different plants native to
each environment and their groupings were noted.

With children of nine and ten years, the science included
also a study of electricity as they saw it in everyday use.8 The
electric battery or cell was used as a starting point, and the
climax of their first investigations in this field was the installa-
tion of an electric bell in the school-room. Simple experiments
led as steps up to the understanding of the electric bell and
later of the telegraph and telephone.

The work in cooking with the older groups was also largely
experimental in character. The making of jelly from cran-
berries and apples gave occasion for emphasizing or introduc-
ing many physical processes, such as the effect of boiling water
in disintegrating solid matter and in hastening the process of
evaporation. These were demonstrated by experiment. The
change of water into steam and back again into water, through
the condensation process, was noted and voluntarily related to
observation of the same process elsewhere. The effect of heat
and cold upon the density of the material was brought out
when the class saw that the hot liquid strained mucli more
•easily than the cold, and that the juice grew solid much faster
when placed out of doors. A number of children began at
this time to relate processes noted in cooking to similar proc*

s The time spent was three to four hours weekly for ten weeks. The
children worked individually, the discussion and a few of the more com-
plicated experiments being conducted by the group as a whole. Course
was first given by Katherine Camp.

PRACTICES DEVELOPING CURRICULUM 51

esses in nature. The resemblance of thick boiling liquids to
geysers and volcanoes was noticed, and generalizations were
made about the expansive tendency of heat and the fact that
steam demands more space than the water from which it was
formed.

The custom of a weekly luncheon worked well for the
older groups also in expressing and developing a social spirit.
The work of getting lunch was variously distributed among
the different children. Some calculated and measured the
amount of cocoa needed, others measured and weighed hominy
and water. Others set the table, while two wrote stories to
read for the entertainment of the others. On a special oc-
casion the ten-year-old group prepared a luncheon for twenty-
two people. The meal consisted of bean soup and cocoa, and
the children themselves bought the milk, bread, and butter
needed. In the meantime, some of Group IV (nine years)
set the tables and some wrote stories to be read at table
for the entertainment of Group V (ten years). Among these
stories were Robin Hood, Sun and the North Wind, Puss in
Boots, Apollo and the Python, and others on original themes.

Opportunity was constantly given for expression in various
mediums. By means of crayon, pencil, color, and scissors, as
well as through the spoken and written word, the children
were encouraged to record the memories of a walk, the apples
they had gathered, the story they had heard, or the process
they had imagined or carried through. One of these younger
groups attempted graphically to represent the evolution of
the house, from the earth lodge and cave to the Greek temple.
The time given to the constructive work in shop, to the de-
velopment of design and the decorative arts in laboratory or
studio, to the writing of records, the related number work,
or the reading and language drill in both English and French
was so interwoven and incidental to the activities carried on
in the study of social life, scientific observations, and experi-
ments as to make it impossible to differentiate or calculate at
all the amount given to each of these subjects.

The physical health of the children was constantly con-
sidered. Until the spring of 1897, the work of this department

5s> THE DEWEY SCHOOL

was carried on at the University. Later, a large hall in the
school was equipped and used for plays and games of the
younger children, the rhythmic drills with wands and dumb-
bells, and the apparatus work or basket ball of the older groups.
There was constant supervision of individual children and
their special needs.

In addition to its relation to the grace and rhythm of bodily
movement music was also always included as a course of
study for all groups. This study was in accord with the methods
of Calvin B. Cady. Its purpose was to develop the musical in-
telligence of the pupils by aiding them to form and express
complete mental images of music. Music is idea expressed in
tone, and a simple melodic phrase is intellectually and musi-
cally a complete idea which must be grasped and gradually
unfolded by the child into its essential elements o£ melody,
rhythm and harmony.

This curriculum pertains to the School from 1896 to 1898
and represents what has been referred to as the "early period
of the developing curriculum." In this experimental school,
the concern was to discover not alone what subject-matter
suited each stage of developing child life, but also to see what
could be done with materials and activities never before used
in classes of small children. The use of these spontaneous ac-
tivities in the classroom necessitated great freedom for change,
for omission, or for repetition later found necessary. As a
result, the school program was always more or less tentative
in character, and shifts in it were frequently made. Certain
subjects were found excellent lor use at this or that age or
with this or that group or teacher. Others proved unsuitable.
There was a continual change and revision of both subject-
matter and method on the basis of experience and in accord
with the tastes and training of the teacher and the resources
of the environment and equipment.

STAGES IN CHILD GROWTH

The practical experience of the School so far had demon-
strated that there were certain stages in child growth. These

PRACTICES DEVELOPING CURRICULUM 53

were never sharply defined, but merged into and overlapped one
another. Certain needs and abilities characteristic of these
stages were recognized, and a beginning had been made in
selecting activities and skills appropriate to those needs and
abilities. Experiment had proven that those studies which had
been of fundamental value to the child's expression had also
enlarged his mental horizons and carried him on into deeper
living. As the result of such a critical interpretation of the
practices of the School from the point of view of both the
teacher and the learner, a clearly defined principle of mental
growth emerged which was of primary importance in under-
standing the needs of the growing child and in planning a
program which should answer to those needs.

The statement made by Mr. Dewey of this principle of the
psychological order of development is the basis of the subse-
quent organization and administration of the School, both as
to the more permanent groupings of the children and the
choice of its subject-matter and method.9

In the organization of the Elementary School, three stages or
periods are recognized. These, however, pass into one another so
gradually that the children are not made conscious of the changes.
The first extends from the age of four to eight or eight and a half
years. In this period the connection of the school life with that of
the home and neighborhood is, of course, especially intimate. The
children are largely occupied with direct social and outgoing modes
of action/ with doing and telling. There is relatively little attempt
made at intellectual formulation, conscious reflection, or command
of technical methods. As, however, there is continual growth in the
complexity of work and in the responsibilities which the children are
capable of assuming, distinct problems gradually emerge in such a
way that the mastery of special methods is necessary.

Hence in the second period (from eight to ten), emphasis is put
upon securing ability to read, write, handle, number, etc., not in
themselves, but as necessary helps and adjuncts in relation to the
more direct modes of experience. Also in the various forms of hand-
work and of science, more and more conscious attention is paid to
the proper ways of doing things, methods of reaching results, as
distinct from the simple doing itself. This is the special period for
securing knowledge of the rules and technique of work.

9 "The University Elementary School, General Outline of Scheme of
Work," University Record, December 30, 1898.

54 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

In the third period, lasting until the thirteenth year, the skill thus
acquired is utilized in application to definite problems of investiga-
tion and reflection, leading on to recognition of the significance and
necessity of generalizations. When this latter point is reached, the
period of distinctly secondary education may be said to have begun.
This third period is also that of the distinctive differentiation of the
various lines of work, history and science, the various forms of
science, etc. from one another. So far as the methods and tools em-
ployed in each have been mastered, so far is the child able to take
up the pursuit each by itself, making it, in some sense, really a study.
If the first period has given the child a common and varied back-
ground, if the second has introduced him to control of reading,
writing, numbering, manipulating materials, etc., as instruments of
inquiry, he is now ready in the third for a certain amount of speciali-
zation without danger of isolation or artificiality.

The picture of the first two years of this experiment in edu-
cation is somewhat blurred, for it was a period of quest, a try-
ing out first of this trail, then of that. Many of these trails
were blind; failure was as frequent as success; but out of the
seeming confusion grew a skeleton pattern for the courses and
method of the later years. Out of it also came a clearer under-
standing of the child mind, its functioning, its changing powers
and interests. Out of it grew a clearer picture of education as
beginning, continuing and ending with life—a unified and
rhythmic experience out of which is born and nourished day
by day the individual life of the spirit which is die child, the
person.

Subsequent experience revised the early statement of the
psychological order of development after the eleventh year.
The School's experience with the third stage of growth and
the beginnings of the secondary period was not long enough
to warrant much positive information after the thirteenth
year.10 The growth stages are covered by the chapters in this
volume as follows:

10 The age of the children in any group may be found by adding three
to the number of the group, for example: Group I—age 4 years; Group
II— age 5 years, etc.

PRACTICES DEVELOPING CURRICULUM 55

THE FIRST STAGE OF GROWTH

Chapter IV.— Groups I and II (4-5 years)

Chapter V.— Group III (6 years)

TRANSITION STAGE

Chapter VI.— Group IV (7 years)

Chapter VII.— Group V (8 years)

SECOND STAGE OF GROWTH

Chapter VIII.— Group VI (9 years)

Chapter IX.— Group VII (10 years)

TRANSITION STAGE

Chapter X.— Group VIII (11 years)

Chapter XI,— Group IX (12 years)

THIRD STAGE OF GROWTH AND BEGINNING OF SECONDARY PERIOD

Chapter XII.— Group X (13 years)

Chapter XIII.— Group XI (*4-i5 years)

CHAPTER IV

HOUSEHOLD OCCUPATIONS

GROUPS i AND ii (AGES FOUR AND FIVE)

IE setting for the youngest children of the school was not
ideal from the point of view of convenience, modern equip-
ment, or exposure. It was, however, sufficiently like the chil-
dren's own homes to give a sense of familiarity to their first
away-from-home experience. The home of the school, a large
dwelling-house on Ellis Avenue, faced east. It had a wide
angled, covered porch, but the large living-room, most suitable
for a kindergarten room in other respects, lay on the northern
side of the house. This very fact was turned to an advantage
for it made the teacher more alert to the need of many out-
door excursions for play on the porch or in the yard, trips
to the park and its great gardens, to the Museum, or just on
walks that were filled with talk of the children's own observa-
tions. The room had great eastern windows and a fireplace.
Owing to lack of funds, it was rather sparsely furnished aside
from the tables and chairs necessary for work and the daily
luncheon. The very bareness of the room, however, seemed to
please the children, for it gave them the freedom for their
plays and games often lacking in their home environment. At
its rear was the old library of the house. Some of the shelves in
this large room were kept for the school reference books;
others were adapted for extra locker space for the little chil-
dren. By happy chance, therefore, the dressing and undressing,
the taking off and putting on of overshoes, and all the daily
activities incident to the coming in and going out of little
children, so important to their gradual development of con-
trol and independence, were carried on in their own quarters.

56

HOUSEHOLD OCCUPATIONS 57

Such were the quarters of the sub-primary department that
opened for the first time in the fall of 1898 with eight children.
In January of the next year, the number grew to twenty. The
children were divided into two groups, the four-year-olds,
Group I, and the five-year-olds, Group II. The number of boys
and of girls was about equal. Daily attendance in each group
averaged about nine. Later the enrolment of the sub-primary
department was increased to twenty-four in order to bring the
average attendance to ten or eleven. These children were not
exceptional save as they represented to an unusual degree
parents of various professions whose confidence in the plan
and its sponsors had aroused a hope and a desire for this dif-
ferent and more social type of training for their children. The
daily program was as follows:

9:00- 9:30 Hand-work,

9:00—10:00. . . .Songs and stories.

10:00-10:30 Marching and games such as "Follow

the Leader" while the room was being
aired and personal wants cared for.

10:40-11:15 Luncheon.

11:15-11:45 Dramatic play and rhythms.

This order was not a fixed one. It varied with the work the
children were doing. Sometimes an outdoor excursion to
places near-by was taken. The aim was to have a period of
relaxation follow a period of fixed interest, so as not to keep
them at one kind of work too long. The periods of hand-
work included constructive work, play with blocks, drawing,
painting, modeling in clay, work in the sand, or any suitable
medium of expression.

Mid-morning luncheon was served every day. The children
took entire charge of setting the table, serving, waiting upon
each other, and of washing and putting away the dishes.
The menu consisted of one tablespoon apiece of a prepared
cereal, served with cream and sugar, a cracker and a small
glass of milk, or cocoa on cold days. This menu served twenty-
four children and three teachers for $5.00 a month. Fruit was
served to children whose parents found the above menu ob-
jectionable.

58 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

TEACHERS' PROBLEMS AND PRINCIPLES

The first year the teacher in charge,1 who had previously
taught the primary department of a public school, also di-
rected the reading and writing of some of the older groups.
A year later she married, and a graduate of the Free Kinder-
garten Association of Armour Institute took over the direction
of the groups with the help of two assistants.2 These teachers
in charge of this new sub-primary department had their own
problems. In the light of a new but partial understanding of
the little child as a growing person, both courage and faith
were needed. They had need of courage to discard whatever
they had learned of old methods and materials that could not
be adapted to the sort of teaching disclosed by a new under-
standing of mind in the making. They had need of faith to
trust for guidance to the child's own selective power in and
instinctive control of the activities induced by his surround-
ings. The watchword was "continuity," in order to avoid
breaks in the child's experience which would retard, hamper,
or frustrate the spontaneous expression of his intellectual life—
his thought in action.

The small child of four, who with others, faced the teacher
of these youngest groups, feels himself a person, like other
children of his age. He has long since passed out of the short
period when instinct and simple emotion have control. The
tentative beginnings of his intellectual life are well established.
He has ridden rough shod over the indulgence and correction
of his home guardian, has chosen what he liked, and rejected
what he disliked; he has seen the way he would go and the
thing he would do, and has both gone that way and done
that thing. The consequent pleasurable experience of these
first choices, these breaks away from his mother's plan and of
following his own will-o'-the-wisp desires, have given him a new
sense of freedom and of the power for independent action.

1 Florence La Victoire.

2 Georgia Scates, Grace Dolling, Jessie Taylor, pupils of Anna Bryan,
head of Free Kindergarten Association of Armour Institute, who took an
active interest in developing the sub-primary curriculum.

HOUSEHOLD OCCUPATIONS 59

He has tasted the apple of life and found it to his liking. He
has, to some extent, achieved his own intellectual ends, such
as they are, and has formed his own habit of judging for him-
self.3 "He has a method of thinking, as inevitably his own as
was that of his mother or that of any other caretaker who made
him see his own way by compelling him to react against her
way." The teacher's problem was to simplify and clarify this
passing out from the small center of the narrow and intense
life of the family, where instinct and emotions have been the
guides to action, into the larger and more diffused activities,
which demand intellectual control. How could she make their
present living a continuation of the old, so that it would con-
tinually lead on to a new and larger experience?

As play is the child's natural avenue for expression, a teacher
must consider his knowledge of the physical and social world
about him with its materials and relationships. Play is neither
purely psychical, nor purely physical, but involves the expres-
sion of imagery through movement, with a social end in view.
It is not to be identified with anything which he externally
does. It rather designates his mental attitude as a whole. His
sensations of color, sound, taste, or touch all function in order
to carry on, assist, or reinforce this play, and his mind naturally
selects material with reference to its maintenance and con-
tinuation.4 "Play is the free movement, the interplay, of all
the child's powers, thoughts, and physical movements, em-
bodying in a satisfying form his own images and interests. At
this age, he is still so unskilled in action that he practically
lives in a world of imaginative play which comes through the
cluster of suggestions, reminiscences, and anticipations that
gather about the things he uses. The more natural and straight-
forward these are, the more definite basis there is for calling
up and holding together all the allied suggestions which his
imaginative play really represents. The simple cooking, dish-
washing, dusting, etc., which the children do are no more

s Alice C. Dewey, "The Place of the Kindergarten," The Elementary
School Teacher, January, 1902.

* John Dewey, "Froebel's Educational Principles," The Elementary School
Record, June, 1900.

60 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

prosaic or utilitarian to them than would be, say, the game
of the Five Knights. To children, these occupations of every-
day life are surcharged with a sense of the mysterious values
that attach to whatever their elders are concerned with. The
materials, then, must be real, as direct and straightforward,
as opportunity permits. The house life in its setting of house,
furniture, and utensils,, together with the occupations there
carried on, offers material which is in a direct and real rela-
tionship to the child, and which he naturally tends to repro-
duce in imaginative form."

The program was relatively unambitious compared with
that of many kindergartens, but it may be questioned whether
there are not certain positive advantages to be seen in this
limitation to activities that are so fundamental to human liv-
ing that they continually lead out into new fields and open up
new paths for exploration. Each activity, because of its in-
timate relation to the needs of life, calls for expansion and
enlargement, creates a demand for further activity, reveals a
further need, and suggests something to satisfy that need,
brings in new controls, new materials, and more refined modes
of activity. The little child's liking for novelty and variety, his
need of renewed stimulus, are satisfied and supplied with no
sacrifice of the unity of his experience.

The life of the school touched civic and industrial life at
many points. Many concerns were brought in, when desirable,
without going beyond the unity of the main topic which helped
to develop and foster in the child a sense of continuity and
security, a feeling of at oneness with life which is at the basis
of attention and fundamental to all intellectual growth. From
the child's standpoint, this unity lay in the subject-matter—in
the fact that he was always dealing with one thing— namely,
home life. Emphasis was continually passing from one phase
of this life to another; one occupation after another, one piece
of furniture after another, one relation after another received
attention. They all, however, contributed to one and the same
mode of living, although bringing now this feature, now that
into prominence.
Upon the whole, constructive or "build-up" work (with of

HOUSEHOLD OCCUPATIONS 61

course the proper alternation of story, song, and game con-
nected so far as desirable with the ideas involved in the con-
struction) seemed better fitted than anything else to secure
two lectors— initiation in the child's own impulse, and termina-
tion upon a higher plane. It brought the child into contact
with a great variety of material such as wood, tin, leather, or
yarn. It supplied a motive for using these materials in real
ways, instead of going through exercises having no meaning
save a remote symbolic one. It called into play alertness of the
senses and acuteness of observation. It demanded dear-cut
imagery of the ends to be accomplished and ingenuity and in-
vention in planning. In addition, it made necessary concen-
trated attention and personal responsibility in execution, while
the results were in such tangible form that the child was led
to judge his own work and improve his standards.5

It was taken for granted that the little child is highly imita-
tive and open to suggestions, that his crude powers and im-
mature consciousness need to be continually enriched and
directed through right channels. It was understood that the
psychological function of both suggestion and imitation is to
reinforce and to help out, not to initiate. Both must serve as
added stimuli to bring forth more adequately what the child
is already blindly striving to do. It was accordingly adopted
as a general principle that no activity should be originated by
imitation. The start must come from the child through sug-
gestion; help may then be supplied in order to assist him to
realize more definitely what it is he wants. This help was not
given in the form of a model to copy in action, but through
the medium of suggestions to improve and express what he was
doing. The same principles applied even more strongly to

s It is a pleasure again to acknowledge our great indebtedness to Miss
Anna Bryan and her able staff of the Free Kindergarten Association, for
numberless suggestions regarding both materials and objects for con-
structive -work. Our obligations are also due to Miss La Victoire who
inaugurated the sub-primary program in this school, and who, coming to
the kindergarten the previous year from successful primary work, was
highly effective in affiliating the kindergarten to the spirit of the best
modern primary work. In later years Miss Georgia Scates, Miss Dolling,
and Miss Elsie Port as well as others trained by Miss Bryan, all aided in
developing the sub-primary program of the school.

62 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

what is called dictation work. Nothing, however, seemed more
absurd than to suppose that there was no middle term between
leaving a child to his own unguided fancies and likes and con-
trolling his activities by a formal succession of dictated direc-
tions. Neither was it thought that the teacher should not
suggest anything to the child until he has consciously expressed
a want in that direction. On the contrary, it was believed that
a sympathetic teacher is quite likely to know more clearly than
the child himself what his own instincts are and mean. Such
a teacher can discriminate between use of imitation and sug-
gestion so external and unreal to the child as to be thoroughly
non-psychological, and use so justified through organic rela-
tion to the child's own activities as to fit in naturally and in-
evitably as instruments to help a child carry out his own wishes
and ideals. In organic relations, images, in process of expres-
sion, are compelled to extend and relate themselves to other
images, in order to secure proper expression. This expansion
or growth of imagery is the medium of realization and is se-
cured when the materials of expression are provided and the
end to which these are the means, is recognized by the child.6
Mr. Dewey points out in this connection that the process of
learning, under such conditions, conforms to psychological
conditions, in so far as it is indirect. Attention is not upon
the idea of learning, but upon the accomplishing of a real and
intrinsic purpose— the expression of an idea.

DAILY PROCEDURE

The first days in school were spent in getting acquainted.7
Each child finds out through talk and play with other children
that they too have homes where many of the same familiar

«A teacher could supply the requisite stimuli and needed materials
for expression. A suggestion of a playhouse that came from seeing objects
that had already been made to furnish one or from seeing other children
at work, was often quite sufficient definitely to direct the activities of a
normal child of five.

7 Statements in regard to the children of four and five cover a period
of five years, from 1898 to June 1903. All other statements that cover an
experience with children of nine and ten, embrace a space of seven years.

HOUSEHOLD OCCUPATIONS 63

things are done with this difference or that. The teacher finds
that the children under her care will learn much from each
other and sees in it both a help and a problem. Every one soon
began to have a feeling that here was a place belonging to
him, where simple ways were without haste and pressure. In
his own home, adults, always engaged in their own pursuits,
had hurried him in his play. Here, he found he could play
as he wished and take his own time, as long as he did not block
others' play. Here, also, he could express freely the natural
social interest in other children normal to his age. In one
group for example, the children grew acquainted with each
•other and their surroundings by telling of their summer ex-
periences. One little boy made an old-fashioned well like one
on the farm he had visited, and another child made a basket
with eggs like the one he had used. They soon were grouped
or grouped themselves according to their favorite plays or
games or way of expressing themselves, and these groups closely
coincided with the actual ages of the children. The four-year-
old children were satisfied with mere activity, regardless of
means and ends. At first, this age preferred to play alone, but
with skillful management the climbing, jumping, running, and
rolling were guided into group games where the children
learned to accommodate themselves to others and to express
themselves in the presence of others.

SELECTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF ACTIVITIES

During the early weeks, both groups took many walks in the
parks where their attention was directed to the homes of the
birds, the insects, and the animals. They noticed the empty
birds nests, brought some home, and talked of where the birds
were going at this time of year and why. The gathered autumn
leaves and drew them with paints or colored crayons. These
expressions gave many clues to individual interests and talents.
The repeated emphasis on home experiences loosened tongues,
and the outside world came creeping in. Each child's own
home life was used as a basis to build talks about the other
children's homes and families, and the various persons helping

64 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

in the occupations of the household. The family's dependence
upon the daily visit of the milkman, grocer, iceman, postman,
and the occasional visits of the coalman and others was also
discussed.

At this age, children are forthright into action, and an idea
straightway becomes drama. At first little or nothing suffices
for the setting of the stage. Any folded piece of paper is ade-
quate for the postman's letter. The child's fertile imagination
at first requires none of the props and aids of stage setting,
properties, or costume. Very soon, however, his idea enlarges
and is translated through action into the postman's cap, his
bag, the mail box, or the two-wheeled mail cart of those clays
drawn by a paper horse. Again the horizon shifts as new ideas
rise over the border line of consciousness. The child wants to
go further with the mail man than the corner post-box. The
mail man takes letters from the box. "Where does he take
them? To the post-office! Let's go." From the many avenues
along which a little child can journey out into a larger world,
the teacher must help to choose those trails that are not blind,
but lead into main thoroughfares of thought and action.

In the autumn, when the activities of the world of both
nature and man are inspired and influenced by the need of
preparing for the cold days of winter, the thoughts of little
children are easily directed to the seasonal changes and the
necessary occupations which they cause. It was easy for the
children in these groups to see the connection between the
squirrel in the park, busy storing nuts in the hollow tree, and
their mothers preserving fruit in their own kitchens.

But the child's many kinds of food, articles of clothing, and
large and complicated house required many questions. Many
of the answers to the latter seemed to open paths into one main
avenue which led back to the farm. They made a trip to a
farm and saw the orchards, the harvesting of the fruit, and
the fields with their shocks of corn. This visit was the beginning
of many activities, which varied, of course, with teacher, chil-
dren, and circumstances. Part of the group played grocery
store and sold fruit and sugar for the jelly-making of the others.

HOUSEHOLD OCCUPATIONS 65

Some were clerks, some delivery boys, others mothers, and some
made the grocery wagons. The clerks were given measuring
cups with which to measure the sugar and cranberries and
paper to wrap the packages to take home. This led under
guidance into a discussion of the large storehouse. It was
considered as a roomy place where a great deal of fruit could
be kept. From time to time it supplied the grocery store which
held only enough for a few days. A wholesale house was con-
structed out of a big box. Elevators would be necessary, a
child volunteered, for storehouses have so many floors; and
these were made from long narrow corset boxes, a familiar
wrapping in every household of that day.

Early cold days made it easy and natural for another group
to decide that one of the necessary things for the mother to
do was to get the warm clothing ready for the family. Out
of this talk developed a play of the dry-goods store, in which
three classes joined together. The children planned to play and
decided the parts which grew in scope from day to day. Several
children were the mothers coming to the dry-goods store to
shop. Others were the clerks who arranged and decorated
the windows with various materials. The mothers chose those
they thought most suitable for warm clothing. All selected
warm colors and judged of material largely by feeling it. A
table was taken for a counter and on it were put scissors, thread,
thimbles, and needles— all that would be needed for the making
of clothing. After buying the material at the store, the mothers
tried to match it in thread, in tape, and different kinds of
silk. These attempts were interesting to watch. A third group
of children made street cars out of chairs on which the mothers
could ride to the store. One child was the conductor and
punched the tickets, and a triangle was used for a car bell. Or
again, two of the children became horse and wagon and de-
livered the goods, while another child was the bundle wrapper.
They enjoyed the game so much that it was played all over
again the next day.

Still another group approached the occupations of the house-
hold from a different angle. In the discussion (and aided by

66 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

suggestion) the children decided that mother has so much to
do that she must have some one to assist in the general work
of the house. They then organized and dramatized the work
of washing and ironing, constructing the necessary utensils
as they went along. The work for the two groups varied little
save that the older children did more of their own construction.
In making their scrub boards, for example, these children
themselves measured the required lengths with rulers, and
were also able to do their own sawing. Most of these children
could count to fourteen and could understand the figures on
the rulers.

It was found that the preparation for, the eating and clear-
ing away of the mid-morning luncheon gave a continuous set
of activities affording many opportunities for self-management
and initiative in which the youngest child gradually came to
competent control of the whole procedure. Each child must
help in preparing for a group action. The counting of the
chairs was a coveted task. Each chair was named for each child
many times until the idea dawned that one can count the chil-
dren and then count the chairs. This new method gradually
extended to the counting of the spoons and other necessary
articles, and a familiarity with the use of numbers in counting
was gained. It was useful also to know that if you give one-
half an apple to each child, four apples are enough for eight
children, or if one cupful of flaked wheat is enough for two
children, four cups must be used for eight.

Many operations difficult for small persons to surmount grew
out of table setting. There were many materials to handle-
chairs, cups, plates, spoons, napkins and food. They must learn
with more and more success to carry properly, to place, to pour,
to serve, and to wash and wipe the dishes. In all these processes,
the thinking done and the decisions made involved coopera-
tion in a project with a social end. The giving and receiving
of directions required definiteness of speech and courtesy of
manner in social relationships. To play host and hostess in-
volved consideration of others, for equals in age and experi-
ence as well as adults. Interest was always evident, and growth
in development was shown by an increased sense of responsi-

HOUSEHOLD OCCUPATIONS 67

bility.8 On great occasions, such as Thanksgiving or Christmas,
the menu for the luncheon was elaborated and extended to
include the actual cooking of one food, such as cranberries
or pop corn. When popping corn the children's apparent in-
terest was not in why the corn popped, but in the kind of dish
to use, how to hold it over the fire, and most of all in the
popped corn, the ticklish process of its sharing and the delight-
ful one of its consumption.

Toward the end of the second year, when getting the lunch,
certain children, generally the older ones, began to ask why
they couldn't always cook the cereal and to show an interest
in the material of different dry cereals which they served. This
interest in material and competency to plan and carry through
alone the operations necessary for the mid-morning luncheon
were some of the indications that a child was ready to under-
take the more intricate processes of cooking, which, in this
school, was a definitely developed subject-matter. Its scientific
implications were easily emphasized with all ages, because of
the natural social end of the luncheon. Five years of experi-
ence resulted in the decision to postpone systematic use of
cooking with heat to the six-year groups, when interest in
experimentation as consciously planned and directed experi-
ment begins to develop. With younger children, it was another
case of skimming the cream from an activity which might be
used to great advantage at a later period when desire to ex-
periment with an end in view had awakened.9

The program for these groups was always flexible. It was
adapted to the seasons and to special events such as Thanks-
giving and Christmas. Birthdays were celebrated when one
group entertained the other or an older group. At some sea-

8 The luncheon was generally prepared and cleared away in twenty
minutes and in consequence, entailed on the part of the teacher just the
kind of setting that would prevail in any well-ordered home where utensils
and material were chosen and arranged for a young child's use.

a "Overestimation of the child's ability is drawing on the future. It
puts in the child's way material for which he is not ripe and is sure to
bring on that attitude of indifference which is characteristic of that
unfortunate being known as the blase kindergarten child." Alice C. Dewey,
"The Place of the Kindergarten in Education/' Elementary School Teacher,
January, 1902.

68 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

son of tie year, usually the second quarter, the work included
the building of a play house. This was a group enterprise.
Cottages with one or two rooms, the smallest known to the
children, were made of blocks. Day by day details were added.
Streets were made with sidewalks to connect with other streets.
Lamp-posts were added and the stepping stones across the
streets. These ideas were the children's own and developed
without direct suggestion. When interest flagged, they were
aided (by prearrangement of material and situation) to carry
on into a new phase of the idea. The streets and sidewalks of
their toy town finished to their satisfaction, a hint was suffi-
cient to direct attention and effort to the interior arrangements
of their cottages. They outlined the rooms with six-inch blocks
and with smaller ones placed in them the necessary furniture.
Another group of children cut their houses from brown paper
and drew the sidewalks.

As they worked there was talk of the wood that was used
in the construction of real cottages. Speculation was rife as to
where it came from and its many uses. Answers came easily—
tables and chairs and the woodwork in the houses were sug-
gested. Finally, one child volunteered that trees were made of
wood also. Some one else then suggested that trees could be
chopped down to get the wood. These details taken from the
records serve to show how the self-originated ideas of the chil-
dren were allowed to develop into self-expression and to extend
and enlarge into larger and more complicated execution. Only
enough aid was given to avoid "blocks" in expression and the
consequent dulling of interest and waste of effort in a "slowed
up" process.

An expedition to a hardware store to see what tools a car-
penter might use to build a house made one child want to
build his own house to take home. Large boxes were used. The
older children measured and cut all the paper for the walls.
The little children tacked down the matting on the floors, made
a table for the dining-room by fastening legs on a block. For
chairs, they nailed a back to a cube and tacked on a leather seat.
The older children made tables and chairs from uncut wood,
which they measured and sawed by themselves. When finished,

HOUSEHOLD OCCUPATIONS 69

these were shellacked and the seats upholstered with leatherette
and cotton. Some of the children painted the outside of die
house so that its walls should "be protected from the weather."
Inside it was papered "for ornament/' and the necessary furni-
ture for each room decided upon, made from cardboard, wood,
or tin, and put into place. One of the results of this phase of
the project was a gain in each child's ability to carry out his
own ideas. He was put to it to execute and to show individual
results. He thus secured the feel of accomplishment according
to the measure of his success.

All the hand-work of these groups involved the use of large
muscles. That of Group II was a little more advanced than
that of Group I. The latter, for example, were given two pieces
of wood to make a chair— one, 4x1 inches, the other a i x i inch
cube. Their problem was to find a way of putting them to-
gether. Group II, however, was given a cube and a long strip
of wood which they measured and sawed to length, before
constructing the chair. A leather cushion for the chair was
given to the younger children, cut the right size to fit the chair;
while the older children were given a large piece from which
to cut the cushion to their own measurements. This work
was given slowly, a few steps at a time, not too closely con-
nected, but in such a way that each step appealed to the child
as a fairly complete whole in itself. Recognition also was given
to the desire all children have— time to play with what they
have made.

REPORT OF GROUP TEACHERS

At the end of each quarter, each group teacher reported on
the work of the group. These reports were for the information
of her colleagues and those directing the experiment; they
enabled the writer to evaluate her series of activities and in
the light of its success or failure, to plan her succeeding pro-
gram. Extracts from such an evaluation of a quarter's activi-
ties, in terms of the gain in development made by the children
who engaged in them, may help to point out how necessary
such reports were to the success of the entire experiment. These
classroom findings became the basis of informal and seminar

70 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

discussion out of which came the revision that made for what-
ever progress in education this experiment may have achieved.

10 Our chief aim has been to help each child in Group I to gain
control of himself and the few simple materials at hand. In reality,
this is the beginning of his mastery of the whole material world. The
environment is new to each, likewise the social relations. It took
some time to become accustomed to both in order to adjust to both.
As a group, they have begun to recognize to some extent each other's
rights and to feel a certain amount of responsibility for keeping the
whole kindergarten in good condition. They have gained some
control over their own bodies, especially their hands. This is proved
by their ability to arrange materials, build with blocks, and to con-
struct a few, simple objects of paper, tea-lead, or clay. In this work
and play, they have used water-colors to express their ideas. The
drawing so far can scarcely be called drawing; it is mostly an oc-
casional test of the impressions the child has received and of the
skill he is acquiring in the way of giving expression along these
lines. The modeling in clay is beginning to assume a somewhat more
definite shape, and the results are sometimes in accord with the
names they bear. For the most part, there is still more pleasure in
the mere handling of the material, and the name is discovered after
the object is finished.

The work with Group II has been somewhat more definite so far
as progress is concerned. The children have all gained considerable
•skill in building with blocks and have a pretty good idea of the right
position and relation of these blocks to produce the desired effect.
Free play has been given and then directed when they have shown
signs of finding their own limitations in the use of material. Some-
times, each child does his separate piece of work in his own way;
sometimes, each does his own as all of the rest do theirs; and some-
times, all work together, each doing a part on some one thing. This
latter plan is not altogether successful at the beginning, but the
children later get much pleasure out of such cooperative work and
play. The only models used for work in clay and color so far have
been fruits and vegetables. These have been fairly well reproduced.
The drawing has been interesting in its different stages, but progress
is not marked. Much has been from imagination, with an occasional
reproduction of experience such as their visit to the baker or the
blacksmith shop. The games have grown from those which give
pleasure through the mere exercising of the body to those which
deal a little more with the imagination and the dramatization of
actual experience. This has enlarged their ideas of social relations.

Each child begins to feel in a small way the pleasure that comes

10 Group Teachers, Bertha Dolling, Elsie Port.

HOUSEHOLD OCCUPATIONS 71

with sharing, as he relates his experience in the morning circle or
brings from home something in which all are interested. Sometimes
this is a story or a song, a book or a pet toy; whatever it is, they are
all learning in a sweet, unconscious way to give and have pleasure
in giving. The more timid children are beginning to offer a remark
or two, and this is encouraged as aften as possible. The spirit of
helpfulness is often shown in the arranging of the chairs or dusting
before kindergarten, in putting on their own wraps as far as possible,
and in helping others who need it.

Some number work has been done with all of the children, more
in the second group than in the first. In Group I, each child can
count beads, children, blocks, or other objects up to six. With one
or two when six is reached, there is uncertainty and indefiniteness.
The finger will touch two or three beads while counting one, or will
count four or five while touching two. With the larger number of
children, however, sixteen and seventeen seem to be the limit.
Two is about as large a number as they try to handle in combina-
tions. They will make number lessons for themselves, studying two
beads of one color, two of another, or perhaps two of one form and
one of another. In Group II perhaps one or two of the children can
count to fifty or one hundred, but the actual comprehension of
number with the majority of the group stops with twenty or twenty-
one.11 The group works with twos, threes and fours, and can make
simple combinations of these numbers.

SUMMARY

A spirit of freedom and mutual respect on the part of both
teachers and children was as apparent in these groups as in
the older. Each child came to see that orderly self-direction
in his activity was essential to group effort: he learned to stop
pounding because it interfered with the group's story-telling,
even though he didn't choose to join the activity of the group.
The "good" way of doing things developed in each situation,
and the best order of proceeding with the activity was formu-
lated by teachers and children as a result of group thought.
Therefore, "discipline," so-called, was not from above, but was
evolved as a result of the participation by both teacher and
children in a group activity, and a school spirit developed
which fostered social sensitivity and conscience. The teacher's

11 This limit was probably due to the fact that the class numbered
twenty-one.

72 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

part in the developing play of these years is to see that the child
really carries out his self-initiated game in such a way that,
without unnecessary aid from her, the play proceeds in orderly
development to its finish. This aid takes the form of an in-
telligent shared interest which when necessary removes "blocks"
in the child's action so that it is free and unhampered to follow
the gleam of his own impulses.12 The purpose was that the flow
of dynamic energy from these native desires to do and to make
should be used to attain that measure of skill in action which
would enable him to accomplish his end without undue and
discouraging effort. The satisfaction of this accomplishment
would then carry over and give rise to the new gleam of a
larger purpose. In order that this flow of power and purpose
might be uninterrupted, it was necessary that the activities be
continuous. Those of one day or week or period of develop-
ment must grow out of the preceding and into the succeeding
one, in order that the native powers and acquired skills of
every child may be continuously stimulated and built into
habits of acting whidi can cope with the changing conditions
of his activity. This was an ideal in the school. Needless to say,
there were often breaks in this desired continuity; subject-
matter that did not carry the idea on nor the child's original
impulse over into the next period of growth. Discussion as
to reasons for this failure led to elimination or revision.

In the process of getting what he wanted, the child learned
many things as to the ways and means of getting it. Little by
little in this school of experiencing, he was taught control.
His impulse to act grew less immediate. He schooled himself
to wait, to think, and plan a bit before acting. Success and
failure in dealing with means in regard to ends exercised his
judgment of the quality and value of means as appropriate
to purpose. When the conditions were right, and the let and
hindrance were in the right proportion for the continuous
development of his action, he gradually built up a background

12 These "blocks" occur often for reasons hidden in the child's past,
sometimes because ot interference of unsocially developed children who
get "a kick" out of interruption per se.

HOUSEHOLD OCCUPATIONS 73

of both satisfactory and unsatisfactory experience, which gave
him a basis for wider choice and more definite preference.

Ideally, then, he was well started in his growing process.

As a member of a group, he had learned the rudiments of co-
operation, and something of the pleasure of sharing. He had
experienced the satisfaction of doing and of making the con-
crete image of his idea. The latter (ideally) self-originated, was
accomplished largely through imitation and guided by sug-
gestion. Little by little, however, he had been thrown on his
own to choose his play or the material with which to develop
his thought, and he was already beginning to investigate and
experiment, to use "the test and prove" method. In the process
he had learned, by succeeding and failing, the subsequent pleas-
urable or disagreeable sensations, the satisfactory or unsatis-
factory feelings. Thus, he built up a background of experience
that had depth as well as range and quality as well as efficiency.
His were the rewards of a construction that truly expressed
his purpose, the pleasurable sensations of the sand swiftly
dropping through the fingers, the softness of the easily molded
clay, the bright color of the paints vividly reproducing the
mental image, the melody of the songs, or the rhythm of the
dances. All blended into a living and expressing that was truly
artistic in its quality, however crude its product.

G,

CHAPTER V

SOCIAL OCCUPATIONS SERVING
THE HOUSEHOLD

GROUP III (AGE SIX)

' ROUP III averaged about seventeen in number. Their
headquarters were in one of the best rooms in the house, which
also served as the biological laboratory. This room had an
eastern and southern exposure, with a big bay-window, closet,
and alcove. Here stood the vivarium and aquarium that pro-
vided homes for the many living things— plant and animal-
collected by the children.

In this room the children of Group III spent an average of
one and a half to two hours a day. This time was used for
social exchange of their ideas and plans and the dramatization
of the occupations they were undertaking. A blackboard and
a sand-table were available and free floor space for games. The
group was divided for the work necessitating individual at-
tention, but went as a whole to assembly and chorus singing.
The entire group joined twice a week with the seven-year-
olds in plays and games, outdoors and in the gymnasium. Two
or three times a week, they returned to the sub-primary rooms
for a half hour of play and music with the younger children.

Group III was in charge of a teacher trained in science. She
was responsible for the physical condition of the children, and
the parents came to her for consultation. She had an assistant.1
The school period for these children was from nine to twelve,
a half-hour longer than that of the sub-primary groups. There
was no mid-morning luncheon as their going about the school

i Katherine Andrews, Wynne Lackersteen.

74

OCCUPATIONS SERVING HOUSEHOLD 75

and participating in the cooking gave them the necessary op-
portunities of a social nature. Seven years o£ experimentation
with activities for this age resulted in a choice of present day
occupations as the most suitable subject-matter. The general
method of procedure was the same with all groups. Ten to
fifteen minutes were always given at the opening of school
to group conversation. What had been done was talked over
and the reasons for success or failure were brought out; plans
for the day were made; jobs were distributed. Each child served
in turn as leader. The written program was pinned to him. This
was for the guidance of adults in a case of a temporary change
of rooms. The children usually carried the program well in
mind, although there were interesting individual variations
and ability to lead was often used as a test of maturity and
judgment. At this age (six years), the characteristic attitude is
still that of play. Therefore, the greater amount of time was
given to active pursuits, only about two hours a week being
devoted to things intellectual, the stories and conversations
about the social activities of the group. The amount of con-
crete number experience in connection with constructive work
in the shop, cooking, and number games was unusual for chil-
dren of this age. This frequent use of number symbols, com-
bined with the gradual introduction of the symbols of measure-
ment throughout this year and the next, was considered the
explanation of these children's rather unusual understanding
and later use of arithmetical relations and expressions.2

Many excursions kept the balance between the children's ob-
servational attitude and their constructive expression, includ-
ing music and all forms of art. They were encouraged to look
in order to use; to return to actual situations and to pictures

2 A mother of one of the boys in this group recently wrote to the authors
of this book: "The work done in the school by my boy in arithmetic,
history, and English especially pleased me. Because they were taught
arithmetic concretely, not abstractly, they were able to accomplish feats in
mental arithmetic which to me were phenomenal. They added, subtracted,
and multiplied fractions as easily as I did whole numbers. Their history
was made a living thing to them, and the good literature which was read
to them was suggestive to their mother, as well as very helpful in forming
in them a taste for good literature."

76 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

for information. In other words, they were encouraged to re-
search at a six-year-old level.

CHARACTER OF THE CHILD'S SOCIAL INTEREST

Beginning with blocks and floor games where social organiza-
tion was necessary to carry work through, the children de-
veloped an astonishing technique in the use of the sand-table
and all sorts of materials for observed or imagined scenes. One
objection to a restricted use of the sand-table was that such
representation often became static. Hence recourse was often
made to dramatic representation by the children themselves in
outdoor meetings. For example, the sand-table was transferred,
in the spring, to the side yard, and fields and gardens were laid
out on a larger scale and with a greater sense of reality.

The study of present-day occupations, with its emphasis on
those supplying the food necessities of life, led this group to
spend much time in the study of food. In the kitchen-laboratory
many opportunities occurred for the children to try things out
for themselves, to handle and manipulate materials and com-
bine them, and to see and criticize the results of their handi-
work. At this age, they began also to go to the art studio, al-
though the impromptu drawing and designing done in the
group room were often still superintended there by the art
teacher or her assistant. Two years of games and other activities
had deepened and widened their knowledge of their immediate
physical and social world. Each child recognized die similarity
of his own to other homes, and in some measure, the de-
pendence of all upon the larger world through the service of
the many persons who brought letters, food, clothing, or other
fundamental necessities for daily living. Interest had centered
primarily in the individual who brought things, not in the
things he brought. Always it was the person, what he did, how
he did it, and what came of it that excited their curiosity. Peo-
ple, and only incidentally their occupations, had been the sub-
ject of his study, his conversation, and his play. Gradually,
this interest in people had enlarged, and plays had extended
to activities that took them out of the home and the immediate

OCCUPATIONS SERVING HOUSEHOLD 77

neighborhood. With this change, the interest -which earlier
was primarily personal, centering largely in action and the
feeling induced by action, passed over to an interest in the ob-
jective results of action; from the milkman carrying the milk
to the milk, where it comes from, and how it is made. Ideas
are now best conveyed to the child by the story form, which
is also his own favorite method of expression. The story at
this period is the intellectual counterpart of the child's in-
terest. It must have go, movement, the sense of use and opera-
tion. It must be a physical whole, holding together a variety
of persons, things, and incidents, through a common idea that
enlists the feeling of the child. The latter is seeking "wholes,"
stories that are begun, continued and ended, that are varied
through episode, enlivened with action, and defined in salient
features. The study of corn, for example, as something he has
seen growing, has himself husked, shelled, and perhaps ground
is highly interesting and exciting to a child of six. Without this
background of personal experience, a study of corn separated
from the story of the farm and the farmers, the miller and
the mill, becomes divested of the glory of its use, the part it
plays in life and living.8

The material selected as the basis for this stage of growth,
existing social occupations, was designed to meet and feed this
attitude of this period of development. The typical occupations
of society at large is a step removed from the child's egoistic,
self-absorbed interest and yet deals with something personal,
something which touches him, and which will therefore lure
him on. Experience proved there are great advantages to be
gained from a study of natural objects and processes placed in
a human setting.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF MATERIALS USED IN STUDY OF OCCUPATIONS

The study of occupations as carried on during the year in-
volved observation of seeds and their growth, of plants, wood,

3 "Inspection of things separated from the idea by which they are car-
ried, analysis of isolated detail of form and structure, neither appeals to nor
satisfies a little child." John Dewey, "Introduction to the Work of Group
III," The Elementary School Record, 1900.

78 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

oil, stones, and animals as to phases of structure and function
of parts or habit of performance, of geographical conditions of
landscape, climate, and arrangement of land and water. The
pedagogical problem was to direct the child's power of obser-
vation, to nurture his sympathetic interest in characteristic
traits of the world in which he lives, to afford interpreting ma-
terial for later, more special studies, and yet to supply a carry-
ing medium for the variety of facts and ideas through the
dominant, spontaneous emotions and thoughts of the child.
No separation was made between the social side of the work,
its concern with people's activities and their mutual depend-
encies, and the scientific side, its regard for physical facts and
forces. Such conscious distinction between man and nature is
the result of later reflection and abstraction and is, therefore,
far beyond the mental ability of this stage of growth. To force
it, at this time, will not only fail to engage the child's whole
mental energy, but will confuse and distract him. To make the
child study earth, air, or water, bird, beast, or flower apart from
environment and out of relation to their use by other factors
in the environment, their function in the total life-process,
cuts the tie that relates and binds natural facts and forces to
people and their activities. The child's interest fades for he
misses the way. His imagination finds no avenue of connection
that makes object, fact, or process concrete to him. He loses his
original open, free attitude to natural facts. Nature herself is
reduced to a mass of meaningless details. In contrast, however,
when a natural object is clothed with human significance and
human association, a road lies open from the child's mind to
the object through the connection of the latter with life itself.
The unity of life, as it presents itself to the child, thus binds
together and carries along the different occupations of living.
The diversity of plants, animals, and geographical conditions;
drawing, modeling, games, constructive work, numerical cal-
culations, are ways of carrying certain features of it to a com-
pleted mental and emotional satisfaction. It was found that
such interaction of the various matters studied and of the
powers that were acquired by the children avoided waste and
maintained unity of mental growth. The problem of correla-

OCCUPATIONS SERVING HOUSEHOLD 79

tion, therefore, often solved through devices of instruction em-
ployed to tie together things in themselves disconnected, was
not present in this school because of the community and con-
tinuity of its subject-matter.

In addition, the study of the often observed, well-known,
everyday occupations of living satisfied two recognized de-
mands and principles of primary education: (i) the need of
the familiar, the already experienced, as a basis for moving
upon the unknown and remote; (2) the important claim for
the part which the child's imagination plays in the process.
Each day the child had occasion and opportunity to get from
and exchange with others his store of experience, his range of
information. He needed continually to make new observations,
correcting and extending them in order to keep his own images
moving and find mental rest and satisfaction in definite and
vivid realization of what is new and enriching.

DETAILS OF METHODS USED

Children in Group III (age six) were beginning their third
year of school. The first week was usually full of talk about the
experiences of the past summer. These were related by skilful
direction and suggestion to the work of the previous year and
the attention gradually focused on the extension of these in-
terests to their present and future activities. The group went
outdoors every day and noted the changes taking place in the
woods, fields, and parks. Insects were found going into winter
quarters, and many kinds of seeds were collected. The question
of seed distribution came up, and the children thought of va-
rious agents—the wind, people, and various sorts of animals.
Talk and interest centered for some time on seeds, and excur-
sions were taken to the park and the woods twenty blocks
away, where several seeds that were good to eat were found.
This suggested others also good for food, and finally, each
child made a list of such seeds and with help, classified them as
(i) those where the seed house was good to eat, (2) where the
seed house was not good, (3) those fruits such as the tomato,
the bean, and the cucumber where both the seed and seed

8o THE DEWEY SCHOOL

house were good for food. The next point developed was that
certain seeds are cultivated for their food value by people who
are called farmers. This took the children's thoughts into the
country and back to their previous year's experience and the
various farms they had visited. Some one suggested, "let's make
a farm," and they were then started on a project similar to that
of the previous years. There are, however, several points of
difference worthy of notice. Although the same use of materials
continued with these children, more definite forms of control
were established. Desirable means were considered with rela-
tion to desired ends. This is well illustrated by the way in
which the seeds that are good for food, the cereals, were studied
in cooking. The preparation and cooking of the cereals brought
out their constituents. This led to an additional classification
of foods with relation to their source, whether the seeds, the
stalks, or the roots of plants.

The possibilities found in the gardening and indoor occu-
pational work possible for this year increased so rapidly with
the increased capacity of the child that the choice was almost
unlimited. All the problems connected with plant growth recur
in the care of plants and animals, but now definite experimen-
tation, planned by the child, began. The storing up of food
by the plants either in seeds, leaves, stems, or roots can be taken
as a problem in itself and linked with the care of the school-
room bulbs or garden seed. Another link made in the child's
mind during this year was the dependence of animals (and
human beings) upon plants and of plants upon the soil.4

GENERAL PROGRAM OF A TYPICAL GROUP

The general method of the classroom, for the most part,
followed a certain daily order. At the beginning of the period,
the children were given time for the exchange of the amenities
of the day usual to a group of persons meeting after an ab-
sence. This general conversation was soon directed by the

* While too much emphasis should not be placed upon the child's dawn-
ing interest in discovering for himself appearing at this age, yet it can
be utilized in finding new ways of getting old results.

OCCUPATIONS SERVING HOUSEHOLD 81

teacher to the business of the day. The results of previous work
were reviewed in a group process, and plans for further devel-
opment were discussed. Each child was encouraged to con-
tribute, either out of his past experience or his imagination,
ways and means of meeting the problem of needs that might
arise under new circumstances. These suggestions were dis-
cussed by the group, and with the aid of the teacher, the plans
for the work of the day were decided upon and delegated. At
the close of the period, there was again a group meeting when
the results, if successful, were summarized, and new plans for
further work at the next period suggested.

The first project of the year started off with the building of
a farm-house and barn out of large blocks varying in size up
to six inches. In order to find the dimensions of their square
houses, the children added the lengths of the blocks on one
side and found the sum to be twelve inches or one foot. A plan
for a chicken coop of manilla paper was then discussed and was
finally marked off in two- and three-inch lengths, a rough ap-
proximation to keep in scale with the house. In the meantime,
attention was centered on the farm itself, and the decision was
made to raise corn and wheat and to have sheep and a dairy.
The land was divided into fields and pastures, which were then
fenced. For this they gathered twigs (to take the place of logs
in making a rail fence), cut them into six-inch lengths, and
built the fence three rails high. Around their pastures, how-
ever, they decided to have a stone fence, as they thought this
was stronger. Work continued to some extent on the farm-
house. Boards were cut to proper lengths, with spaces for the
door and windows. A chicken coop was started. In planning
the back part of this, when laying off spaces for the windows
and doors, it suddenly struck the children that the door was
wider than it was high. One of the children went to another
table and measured the door already laid off for the front
of the farm-house, and came back with the correct dimensions.
This was an encouraging indication of a developing power of
initiative and judgment. The square, the triangle, and the
ruler were used freely. Although they had used the latter only
a short time, they were very apt in its use. They knew the inch

82 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

and half-inch, but hesitated on the quarter-inch. In general,
it was found that they all took manual directions very well and
showed great ability to plan and a high degree of independ-
ence in the execution of their plans, doing all the measuring
and sawing themselves. As the project developed they suggested
many of the things necessary in the making of a suitable house.
The interest was well-sustained. In the kindergarten these chil-
dren had been accustomed to making things that could be
finished in one day, but they worked on this for almost two
weeks without any loss of interest.

Early in the fall the group measured off and cleaned a space
in the school yard five by ten feet for planting their winter
wheat. A method of plowing was discussed and at one child's
suggestion, a sharp stick was used and the field prepared in
which the wheat was sown. In their sand-box farm their imag-
inary crop had come to fruition and, like the sheaf brought
in from the farm, was ready for threshing. The various parts
of the whole plant and their uses were discussed with the con-
clusion that the seed was of most value to people. A list was
made of the wheat foods they had eaten— breakfast foods of
coarsely ground wheat, and bread and cake from the finely
ground flour. They played that they were farmers and dis-
cussed the best means of getting the seeds from the hulls, as
they called the process of threshing. At first they picked it out
by hand. This was too slow, so they suggested beating it with
a stick and found that only the edge of the stick struck the
ground. The problem was taken to the shop director, and with
the help of some questioning, the children decided that if the
farmer had two sticks joined together, more of the stick would
hit the grain and thus the work would be done more quickly.
The handle of the flail was made twice as long as the part that
hits the grain. The next stop was to experiment with the
wheat they had threshed and winnowed. Accordingly, it was
pounded in a mortar and compared to some fine, white flour.
They saw that the inside of the grain was soft and white like
the fine flour, but that it was mixed with coarse, yellow par-
ticles. A child suggested putting this meal through a sieve to
separate the coarse from the fine. This was done, but although

OCCUPATIONS SERVING HOUSEHOLD 83

the meal was a good deal finer, some of the yellow particles
still remained. They then wanted to put it through a still finer
sieve, but as there was none convenient, the process of bolting
was explained to them, and the flour was sifted through some
cheese cloth. This took out all the yellow particles and left
the flour fine and white. They had in the end about three
tablespoonsful o£ it, which was used in making a cake.

The experimental work with the food products of the farm
and the effect of heat upon them as demonstrated in the cook-
ing bulked large in the daily activities of these children. The
interest in this phase of their occupational work was keen and
assumed great importance in the development of the whole
project and particularly in their use of numbers. When they
talked about grains in the classroom, they cooked cereals in
the kitchen. For this they needed to learn to measure, to know
how many teaspoons equal one tablespoon, how many table-
spoons equal one cup, and so on. They discovered that two
halves make a cupful, just the same as three thirds, or four
quarters, and they came to talk about %, %, or % of a cupful,
with ease and certainty. It was easy for them to see that % of
a cup of water is i and % of a cup.

Much also of the number work was related to the construc-
tion work done on their farm or in connection with it. When
their sand-table farm had to be divided into several fields for
wheat, corn, oats, and also for the house and the barn, the
children used a one-foot ruler as a unit of measurement and
came to understand what was meant by "fourths and halves"—
the divisions made, though not accurate, were near enough to
allow them to mark off their farm. As they became more fa-
miliar with the ruler and learned the half -foot, and the quarter-
foot and inch, finer work was naturally expected of them and
obtained. Their use of this tool made it easy to distinguish
those children who had had a kindergarten education from
those who had just entered the group. When building the
farm-house, four posts were needed for the corners and six
or seven slats, all of the same height. In measuring the latter,
the children frequently forgot to keep the left-hand edge of the
ruler on the left-hand side of the slat, so the measurements had

84 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

to be repeated two or three times before they were correct.
What they did to one side of the house, they also did to the
other and naturally worked more rapidly and more accurately
as the work was repeated.

A new game of dominoes, invented by one of the teachers,5
did much to interest the children in the composition of num-
bers. Each domino had lines in place of dots. These when
joined make numbers. A child is asked to take eight blocks.
At first, he takes one block at a time, eight times. He builds
his eight and is asked what he sees in it. He may see four and
four or five and three. When all the compositions of eight are
exhausted, he is asked how he can take eight blocks more
rapidly than just one at a time. He may say: "Take six in one
hand and two in the other," or "four in one hand and four in
the other," and then proceeds to demonstrate this, by building
an eight with a six and two, a four and four, and so on. This
was done with all numbers up to twenty. When they came to
the number ten, a child was asked to count the fingers on both
hands and when he answered ten, was told that he had counted
"once around his fingers," and a symbol for that was "i (once)
O round." The children agreed this might have been the
development of our "10." Twenty was then twice (2) around
and so on. In making eleven, twelve, and the "teens," they
built their ten and began again to build another ten, but the
blocks gave out (purposely). One of the blocks from each
child's set was marked with a blue chalk line, and this marked
block represented ten. So when they made eleven, twelve, etc.,
they made it with the ten block and one or two more. They
were interested and understood quickly. The report com-
ments "the children of these two groups seem to be mathema-
tically inclined, and numbers are a pleasure to them."

An interest in reading also developed during these weeks,
starting in a game which necessitated it. All the things they
had found in their outdoor excursions were placed on a table.
Sentences were written on the board, such as: "Find a cocoon,"
and the child who could read it was allowed to run and get the

s Clinton Osbora.

OCCUPATIONS SERVING HOUSEHOLD 85

cocoon. After playing this game a few times, the same sentences
were shown printed in large type, so that they would get the
printed form simultaneously with the script. They seemed very
eagei to read and decided themselves to make a weekly record
of their work. This record was printed from time to time in
large type and was reread with undiminished interest. One
of the children brought David Starr Jordan's The Story of
Knight and Barbara to school. Knight and Barbara were chil-
dren of three and six, who retold and illustrated the stories
that had been told to them. The children were so pleased with
the book that they thought they would like to make one like
it and at once set to work on the fable of the Hare and the
Tortoise as the first story for their book. The story was told
to them and they retold about one half of it at one sitting.
This took some time as considerable discussion was necessary
to make their story logical and clear. The story was written on
the board and, when completed, was printed in large type on
the charts, and later in small type for their books. The group
seems to have shown the same sustained interest in reading
and in finishing these books that they did in the making of
their farm and, in general, exhibited a rather remarkable abil-
ity to concentrate on all phases of their work.

DETAILS OF EARLY DRAMATIC PLAY

Dramatic play frequently helped initiate a new phase of the
activity and as frequently was the means of summarizing the
result of a period's work. The distribution of the threshed or
milled wheat started off with such a play. The setting for the
play, the farm and the mill, was constructed of large blocks;
some children played they were farmers; others were millers.
The farmers carried wheat to the mill; the millers ground it.
The farmer paid the miller by letting him keep some of the
flour and carried home the rest for bread in sacks already pre-
pared for this purpose by the children. Wagons were needed,
and in a day or two these outnumbered their horses. Day by
day the idea grew, helped on by timely hint or suggestion.

It was explained that times had changed, that now there was

86 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

no small near-by mill where a farmer could take his grain. It
must be sent many miles away to a large mill, which ground
the wheat of many farms, and when each farmer wanted flour,
he bought it at a grocery store in the nearest town. It took
some time for them to get a clear idea of the modern trans-
portation of wheat from the farm to the big mill and the dis-
tribution of the flour from the mill. Here again, their first
ideas were worked out through dramatic play. Some of them
were to be farmers, some trainmen, some mill hands, and some
grocers in different towns. The farmers were to take the wheat
to the nearest small town where it could be put on the train
and sent to a large city mill many miles away. Here the millers
would receive it and, after making it into flour, would put it
on another train and send it to the grocers in the different
towns where it would be sold to the farmers when they might
want it. In order that the play should be a success, much prep-
aration was required, and the little farmers were again busy
in the shop, making miniature bushel, peck, and other neces-
sary measures. These, through the careful planning of the
teacher, were circular; all had bottoms of the same size and
varied only in height. Incidentally, but logically, they then saw
that to be good actors, they must learn how to use these tools
in order to measure out their grain.

It was necessary to help them in the logical arrangement of
the rather complicated series of acts necessary in their play.
Early in the process of making the plan, each child was given
a large piece of paper and a pencil, and diagrams were made
representing the ideas previously worked out. Circles were
used to represent towns and cities, squares to represent farms,
lines for railroads, and a pictorial representation of the events
of the play was thus worked out.

Other cereals such as corn and oats were studied in the same
manner as wheat. The developing activities in each case fur-
nished opportunities for close correlation between the shop,
the sewing, and the textile and art studios. Needs were many in
these miniature living projects. Groups of children or individ-
uals frequented the shop for help in making wagons, fence
pickets, house lumber, or furnishings. Others besieged the tex-

OCCUPATIONS SERVING HOUSEHOLD 87

tile studio for bags for their grain or to make rugs on their
looms. Thence to the art studio for design ideas for either rugs
or book covers or illustrations for their written records. There
was much need to know what to use and how to use it in their
never ending activity. It had the qualities and possibilities of
real living; "it was genuine and linked to desired ends. It was
not too easy nor yet too hard, but was of such a nature that the
child was alternately satisfied with his accomplishment and
lured on to greater undertaking.

The study of the farmer's life now took up the animals on
his farm. The cow and the dairy products seemed of first im-
portance to the children. A list was made of all the foods given
by the cow— milk, cream, butter, cheese, the flesh which is
used for food, and the skin for leather.6 The group talked
about the habits of the cow and watched those in the lot
across the street. They concluded that most of a cow's time was
spent in eating grass. It was explained to the children that grass
contained very little nourishment, and the cows had to eat
great quantities of it in order to get enough for their needs.
It was noticed that when the cow was biting off the grass, she
did not stop to chew it, but ate it very rapidly. The children
then observed some of the cows lying in the shade, chewing.
Again it was explained that long ago the flesh-eating animals
preyed on those which lived on grass. The latter, always in dan-
ger when they went out into the open grassy places had to eat
quickly. Out of this grew the habit of rolling the cropped grass
into balls and swallowing them into the first stomach, where
they lay until these animals could return into the comparative
safety of the woods. Here, while resting, the muscles of the
throat brought these balls up into the mouth again, where
they were thoroughly chewed and then swallowed into the
second stomach.

The winter quarter was begun with talk of the sheep-raising
business on a farm. The kind of land was considered that a

« The work in cooking was in close correlation. In the science laboratory
an attempt was made to tan leather. The various daily products were
studied, and butter was made by each child in an improvised individual
churn.

88 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

fanner would use for the pasture for sheep. After much dis-
cussion supplemented at the right moment by bits of informa-
tion and timely reference to maps on the part of the teacher,
the group finally decided that a temperate climate would be
the best. The cold winters would make the wool grow well,
and the sheep would not miss their warm coats in the summer.
On the globe, they found the principal sheep-raising districts,
which were located midway between the equator and the poles.
The raw wool was examined and its agency in seed distribution
was noted. The natural oil in the wool of the sheep was dis-
covered by dipping the wool into water and noticing how it
shed the water. Wool was compared with duck feathers that
also shed water; wool was burned to get the odor, which the
children compared with burning fat and burning hair. They
then tested different kinds of cloth to see if they could tell
those made of wool, first by feeling of it, then by noticing its
absorbent qualities, and then by burning. As a next step, the
wool was pulled out and twisted to show how easily it could
be made into thread. The manner of shearing, of washing, and
of transporting the fleece to the factory was discussed. Through
picture, song, and story this age-old occupation was surrounded
by and linked to some of its many esthetic connotations.

EXTENSION OF INTEREST TO OTHER CLIMATES AND PRODUCTS

The children now seemed ready and interested to go farther
afield and think about the farming crops of other climates
than their own. Accordingly, a study was made of cotton.
The plant was drawn and finally pulled to pieces to find how
many seeds the ball contained. As these seemed more than
were necessary for replanting, the question came up as to what
could be done with the excess. As the children did not know
and had no suggestions, it was necessary to tell them. They
opened some of the seeds and saw that the inside is like a little
nut, which they thought might be good to eat. They were
told that, ground up, it made an excellent food for cattle and
saw for themselves that the inside of the seed is very rich and
oily. They then learned more of the characteristics and uses of

OCCUPATIONS SERVING HOUSEHOLD 89

cotton-seed oil. They wanted to plant some of the cotton seeds
and raise cotton themselves. As it was too cold for this out-of-
doors, some was put in flower-pots in the house, and at the
same time corn and wheat were planted to see which would
be the first to germinate. In this connection, the question of
climate came up, and the children found the places on the
globe where cotton could easily be raised. A cotton plantation
was described to them, and they were told of the old-fashioned
way of separating the seeds from the cotton. An ounce of the
cotton was weighed, and ten children took ten minutes to re-
move the seeds. They saw that this was a very slow and im-
possible process by hand and suggested the use of machinery.
When told of the invention of the cotton-gin, they readily
understood that this would make the cotton much cheaper.
They then spent some time in removing the seeds from a
quarter-pound of cotton and making it into bales. A small
quantity of picked cotton was then ginned and with much
speculation and interest was again weighed, and found to have
lost one half its weight. Their written conclusion was that the
seeds made up half of the weight of the boll. In the process of
weighing the children became familiar with the pound, half-
pound, and other weights and grew able to tell how many
ounce weights are equivalent to a pound, how many quarter-
pound weights to the pound or to the half-pound, and how
many ounces there are in each of these weights. They also spent
a little time counting by two, three, four, and five.

The ginned cotton was finally baled and prepared for ship-
ment to the factory. For this they first cut four-inch squares of
paper, working out the problem for themselves, which served
as patterns for the cloth squares in which they sewed the
cotton. This was then tied with string. Some was shipped to a
cloth factory in the north and some went to be made into
thread. To help them summarize the whole process, they were
shown a case of samples of cotton in its various stages of manu-
facture from the raw cotton to the finished product. After
talking about it, the children were asked to describe the process
without looking at the samples. As they could not do this the
whole lesson was repeated until they were able to give a con-

go THE DEWEY SCHOOL

secutive description. They then commenced to make little
combs for combing the cotton, as this is the first step after it
reaches the mill.

During this period at the close of each step of the process, a
written record was made of the work. Often this was put in the
form of a drama. Toward the close of the quarter, and after
the carpenters of the group had finished the train of cars
which was to transport their cotton crop from the factory to
the wholesale stores, the complete dramatization was under-
taken. Parts were assigned and the different steps in the process
were clearly outlined so that each child would have a definite
idea of the part he was to take. The children made a list of the
places to be represented in the play, such as the plantation, the
factory, the wholesale and retail stores, and so on. This was
written on the board and opposite each place was written the
names of the children who were to be in that particular part.
Some hands on the plantation, some trainmen, some factory
hands, and so on. It took quite a time to organize this play,
and several rehearsals on different days were necessary be-
fore things went smoothly. Each child soon realized the part
he must play and was able to act out the steps of the different
processes in their right order. The written story of their work
was finished. It recorded the chief facts they knew about cotton
and was read in an assembly of the whole school.

The next development in the story grew out of the past ex-
perience and led them on into a new experiment. When trying
to locate the places on the globe where cotton might grow, they
had noticed Egypt and the adjoining desert of Sahara and
could not understand why cotton would not grow in the desert.
The conditions there were explained, and they realized that
cotton needs water as well as heat. One of the children im-
mediately asked what farmers do when they cannot get water
on their farms. On looking at the globe they saw the great
stretch of country in the western part of this continent where
there is never a sufficient water supply.

In talking over the causes for this, they said right away that
the water would have to come from the Pacific Ocean, which
is the nearest large body of water. It was explained how the

OCCUPATIONS SERVING HOUSEHOLD 91

winds blowing across the lands would strike high mountains
and would lose their moisture. Some of the children said that
the wind could still get over the mountains, but that it would
be a dry wind. Then, looking from the eastern side of this dry
•district, they saw that the east wind after traveling over the
land such a great distance would also be dry. One of the chil-
dren had been in Lower California and spoke of that as a dry
country. Another child brought up the question of why it is
a dry country when it is so near the sea shore where it can get
such a supply of water. One boy suggested that the wind might
blow from a different direction, but it was decided that the
wind from any direction other than the west would be dry
because of the mountains. In another period the same topic
was discussed and the same conclusion reached.

Again they studied the barren district in the western part of
this country and again noted the mountains to the west with
the understanding that the western sides of the mountains
would be places of great rainfall. They suggested that if they
could get the water from the mountains for these dry regions,
it would be "all right." It might be carried by train in carts;
but they soon saw this was impracticable, and the problem was
left for solution until the next period when they launched into
the methods of irrigation. This involved a good deal of ex-
perimentation on the sand-table. After much questioning as
to the best method of irrigation, they thought that the natural
flow of water from a high place to a lower one could be uti-
lized, and by means of ditches the water could be taken into
the different parts of a farm. Their idea was that the supply of
water from mountain streams would be small at certain seasons
of the year, but could be stored in large tanks. They then went
to the sand-box and built farms on this principle. They poured
water into their lake in the hills, but some of them found that
they did not get a supply of water on their farms because they
had made their ditches without any regard to the natural
slopes. A talk followed about the conditions under which water
would flow from one place to another. A good many experi-
ments were necessary, but finally, they decided that the supply
tank must be on a hill and the ditches must extend down a

gsj THE DEWEY SCHOOL

slope, or the water would not run in them. They next decided
to use pipes instead of ditches, as the ditches might get clogged
up or the water might soak into the ground, and some men-
tioned the loss from evaporation which would take place from
ditches in a warm country. None of the children, however,
realized that the water could go up the hill as high as the
place it started from. A high tank was therefore arranged with
an outlet of bent glass tubing, and the children found that the
water in the tube rose as high as that in the tank. If they
raised or lowered the tank, the water would also rise or sink,
the water in the tube staying at the level of that in the tank.
After this experimentation it was decided that the best system of
irrigation would be to place the tank on the highest hill and
put the pipes on the slopes. The next problem was raised by a
child who asked how water could get to a second story that
was higher than the level of the lake. A little city was built
of blocks in the sand-box, and the problem was how to get
water to a point higher than any of the houses. The children's
solution was a water-tower. Water was pumped from the level
of the lake to the level of the tower, and they proved to their
own satisfaction that it would rise about as high in the pipes
as its level in the tower.

The next separate enterprise was the lumber camp. Out of
their own experience and needs, the children realized that great
quantities of wood are needed for houses, tables, and chairs, and
their curiosity was aroused as to where the supply came from
and how. Lack of space, however, renders it impossible to
quote these records of the lumbering process, the development
of the sawmill, and the transportation of the finished product
to the retail dispensing houses; nor is it possible to include the
succeeding project of coal and ore mining and its transporta-
tion.

As previously indicated, each occupation was often initiated
and usually concluded with a dramatic play. The children thus
demonstrated to themselves their gain in power to image and
to execute. Their first efforts to dramatize the play of "Miller"
compared with the later detailed and complicated drama of
"Cotton" showed a decided gain in power to plan, to carry out,

OCCUPATIONS SERVING HOUSEHOLD 93

and to consider the end in terms of the means available to
reach the end.

The written record of the work continued at regular inter-
vals and was printed for the group from time to time on the
school press and then read by them with great interest. Some
work on phonetics was slipped in with the reading of the
records, and the children learned easily the sounds of about
eight consonants, were able to give the sound of the latter when
they saw it written, and could write it when given the sound.
As their ability to read increased, more time was given to
collateral reading both to them and by them, until toward
the end of the year a half-an-hour a day was devoted to read-
ing and the writing of connected sentences. The reports com-
ment that "they read with intelligence, have a good idea of
phonics, and show great independence in forming new words."

SUMMARY OF THE FIRST THREE YEARS

Thus in the first three years of his school life the child's play
enlarged from the mimic games of his home people to those
of the persons who contributed to the daily life of the home.
His interests gradually extended to their activities and the
things they did, made, or bought. Foods were traced to their
sources, and finished products of wood or clothing to their raw
materials. So far as he was able, he reproduced these activities
and himself learned to shape materials and means to reach his
ends or to fashion his ideas. In the shop he was shown from the
first the right ways of handling the saw or the plane, as he
made from the wood of this tree or that something to use in
expressing his ideas. In the textile room he fingered the raw
wool, the cotton, the flax, or the silk and compared it with the
cloth of his coat or the shining luster of his mother's dress, and
the old lure of "the how" and "the why" began to stir. In all
the activities which filled his day, spinning, weaving, cooking,
shop-work, modeling, dramatic plays, conversation, story-
telling, or discussion, he was vitally interested and constantly
absorbed knowledge of materials and processes. His activities
were always fundamental and typical and, therefore, related

94 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

and recapitulated his similar previous attempts, enriching and
enlarging them into more definite purposes and plans. Thus,
experience, was an onflowing stream continually enlarged from
all sides by the pouring in of useful knowledge.

As life flowed on, the child became conscious of his social
relationships: that there were others in the group like him
who had rights and privileges; that it was far more fun to play
games with them even if he must renounce somewhat his own
way and consider the way of others in relation to his own. It
was more pleasant to work with them, even if he must think
of the consequences of what he did in relation to others' plans,
and he soon came to see that his consideration of and work
with others was to the advantage of all, that by pooling his-
effort with that of the group, larger and more interesting re-
sults were obtained. There was a noticeable difference between
those of the children who had been trained for three years in
the discipline of the school's activities and those who had but
recently entered. The former took hold of new situations much
more competently than the new comers.

All along the way the function of the teacher was to assist
and further, by direction and anticipation, to remove the too-
difficult elements of the situation such as search for material
and too detailed preparation of material. At the same time
she must see to it that the way was not made too plain, that
there was enough hindrance to his plan to stimulate his fac-
ulties of resourcefulness and judgment in directing the choice
of ways or means so that the meaning of his plays, his games,
his activities continually grew. New needs constantly arose in
process, and new responsibilities were as constantly assumed
by the child. The effect of discovering, of inventing, of using
facts and processes to further his activity, enlarged his ideal of
it, gave an increased confidence in his ability to handle ma-
terials and a deeper appreciation of their worth. Most im-
portant of all, there developed unconsciously a habit of acting
that made him an essential human factor in his environment.

CHAPTER VI

PROGRESS THROUGH INVENTION
AND DISCOVERY

GROUP rv (AGE SEVEN)

vJFROUP IV averaged fourteen in number. The group was
divided for its activities, which centered around the historical
development of the fundamental occupations with special
emphasis upon the progress made in methods due to inven-
tion and discovery. The headquarters for this group was a
northeast room which had a large eastern bay-window, fire-
place, and closet and was also used as part of the chemical and
physical laboratory. The room was large and was furnished
sparsely with a sand-table, a smaller table, and the necessary
chairs. The school session was from nine to twelve, and about
one and a half hours of this time were spent with the group
teacher. More time than with Group III, however, was given
to conversation and the discussion necessary to the organiza-
tion of the dramatic occupational work. The textile activities
in this year overbalanced those of the shop and the kitchen.
The time spent in the art studio was also increased, and the
first steps in technique were undertaken in this year.1 The
group teacher in charge of the group was trained in science and
was helped by the assistant who also worked with Group III.2
Two years of experimentation with subject-matter for chil-
dren of seven and eight years had given indications that this
is a transitional age. For three years the children had been in-
terested in and busy with the occupations of the various

1 There was a division of opinion as to whether the introduction of
conscious technique thus early was advantageous.

2 Katherine Camp, Wynne Lackersteen.

95

96 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

persons through whom food or clothing came to the home and
with the sources of the materials from which the home itself
was built, was lighted, or kept warm. Each child had been
helped to imagine, to express in some tangible form, or to
dramatize his own ideas of these occupations. In the process
he had stored away many useful facts, had learned some skills
of hand and eye, and had become familiar with the folk lore
and ways of his own people. As a result of what he had done
and seen, he had come to know something of the value of his
own impulses through seeing what they can effect. The emo-
tional satisfaction such expression gave led him to think about
and experiment with better ways to express and thus discover
the use of the scientific method although at this age not yet
formulated as such. He had also gained from experience an
idea of the moving character of the present, in the life of which
he was a factor. At this age a child's activities are still for the
most part direct from idea to action by use of the physical
environment, but he is willing to develop an idea to a certain
extent before expressing it. He is not content, for example,
with a one-act play of "Miller," for he sees that a real miller
goes through a series of acts and dimly perceives that there is
an end in view. The new realization of and interest in the ends
and aims of action go hand in hand with an increasing will-
ingness and ability for longer periods of mental concentration.
His best loved materials for play are still sticks and stones, dirt
and sand, fire and water. Social situations interest him, persons
using and controlling their environment in getting food, cloth-
ing, shelter, and gradually, comfort and satisfaction. Life is
still a unity to him. Facts and skills are interesting and worth
while only as they help in his activities. It makes no difference
whether the occupations he is reliving are those of the present
time in the forests of Michigan or those of primitive man or of
Greek and Roman days. His interest is in carrying on his play.

CENTERING INTEREST ON PRIMITIVE LIFE

Less and less often is his question "What does he do?"
Wonder has begun to stir his imaginings as to the whence and

GARDENING FOR THE YOUNGER GROUPS

DRAWING WORKING PLANS FOR FARM UTENSILS

INVENTION AND DISCOVERY 97

the where. The lure of the how and the why begins at this
age to leaven the questing mind. The child is less and less con-
tent with endless imitation and likes more and more to experi-
ment and, after the fashion of his own thinking, to originate.
The spirit of inquiry is opening the door to investigation, to
discovery and invention. These and other signs along the
way seem to show a changing, an enlarging, and increasing
purpose.

The aim of this year's study, therefore, was to make sure of
these enlarging interests and awakening impulses to action
and to carry the child, by means of them, into an ever enlarg-
ing understanding of his moving stream of life— whence and
how it comes, whither and how it goes. The dawning psycho-
logical consciousness of a relation between the means and the
end suggests that the interests of the child of this age are ready
to extend to persons in situations different from his own. In
response to this awakening interest in other times and situa-
tions, the work for this group became historical in character.
It was still concerned with what men do, but the factors of
men, their environment, and relationships were stretched out
longitudinally, as it were, into the characters, environment,
and social situations of primitive times. Continuity of sub-
ject-matter, the fundamental activities of getting food, and
providing shelter and clothing, was thus preserved and at the
same time the physical and social settings of these activities were
so simplified that they permitted and required the greater detail
and definiteness of treatment that the child's present environ-
ment denies. It was necessary for him to lift himself and his
images out of the complexity of his present life and gradually
people the situation and environment of an utterly different
period of time. This required a certain power of abstraction.
Farming, as studied the previous year, had shown what certain
people do, what things they come in contact with, how they
use them, and how the farmer serves other people. Agriculture
taken in historic perspective, however, while reviewing much of
this material, throws emphasis upon the peculiar needs in man's
life which call forth this occupation, and the way in which it
reacts upon the make-up of society. In one case, the matter is

98 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

taken up as a situation to be realized; in the other as some-
thing whose typical motives and effects are to be discovered
and traced. Used in this way, the historic statement as Mr.
Dewey suggests, "is a method of analysis of existing social life,
not mere information about something past and gone."

The historic approach also requires attention to the se-
quence and order of progress in its larger and more obvious
features. The child is led to consider imaginatively the needs
of other times and places which call forth certain kinds of
occupations and the devices and inventions that gradually take
place in them. He sees the advance made in ways of living
through control of tools, fire, and directed uses of wind and
water. He understands the greater feeling of security that re-
sults from a more constant source of food and from the com-
bination and cooperation of individuals and families in a clan
organization. He recognizes that the qualities of leadership
demanded in war and hunting cannot take away the control
of affairs from those of the clan who are wise in tradition, the
old, both men and women, and thus comes naturally to a
respect for age and experience. He learns that it is necessary
to know both how to follow and how to lead and that there is
adventure under as well as of leadership. This sort of dramatic
play cannot fail to make clear the way invention reacts upon
life and calls into play new powers of both individuals and
groups, new ways of cooperation and association, and leads to
the use of natural objects and the control of forces hitherto
unmastered. "The orderly and cumulative narrative of history
is logic in its concrete form, a form which appeals to the child
mind of this age."

This type of material uses the interest in the primitive and
the savage so characteristic of children of this age. It could be
said with truth that the fundamental interests of a child at this
stage of growth and of a savage are the same, food, comfort,
shelter, although with the child these interests are multiplied
and refined. It could be said that the child is like the savage
in ability but not in capability, for behind the former lies the
great heritage of civilization. It follows that the activities of
primitive peoples are in line with the child's interests and

INVENTION AND DISCOVERY 99

under wise direction this study can provide the avenues for his
best effort.

The dangers attendant upon an unwise use of the primitive
life approach were fully recognized, but the advantages ap-
parent in the results of repeated experiment with such a study
seemed far to outweight its disadvantages. The dramatic use
of its incidents utilized the interest of the child in the primitive
way of living so as to minimize the sensational or merely
picturesque features and bring out its defects. He came to
realize the motives that otherwise lie hidden from the modern
civilized child, and the hard conditions of primitive life that
forced men to work their way to a better and better life of a
kind that gave a sense of peace and security. When the child
realizes the reality of primitive problems, he wants to redis-
cover and reinvent for himself the better ways and means of
living. He thus finds the secret of advance which has resulted
for the race in an upward spiral of progressive action.

Finally, and most important of all, it was hoped that if good
practice proved the method true, there would crystallize in the
child as a by-product of this directed activity, a similar habit of
considered and considerate behavior which would carry over
into his present situations. Certain rather sensational incidents
proved there was basis for such a hope. A child of eight who
had carried such a program was playing in the attic of his
home with his sister of thirteen and his brother of four when
he suddenly saw his brother's clothing in flames. The sister ran
shrieking for adult help, while our boy wrapped a blanket
about his brother, threw him to the floor, and smothered the
flames so quickly that no serious injury resulted. When praised
for his quick work and asked how he knew what to do, the boy,
very simply and with no apparent feeling that he had done
anything unusual, replied that his teacher the previous year
had told them the different ways of putting out fire with earth,
heavy cloths, water, and so on and had shown them just how
to act in case clothing caught fire. In another group where the
teacher had not sufficiently emphasized the right choice of a
place to build a fire, a little child went home and started a
fire on the wooden floor of a closet.

ioo THE DEWEY SCHOOL

METHOD OF STUDYING PRIMITIVE LIFE

The starting point of the study for this year was varied, de-
pending upon the background and experience of both teacher
and children.3 Sometimes the journey back to the long ago was
made by the old, old road of "Let's pretend," dropping along
the way, one by one, all the comforts and conveniences of pres-
ent foods, clothing, and shelter which the children thought
they could do without.4 By this process of eliminating the non-
essentials they were reduced to water (always mentioned as the
first essential), food, and the necessity of protection from the
elements and wild animals. They found difficulty, some groups
more than others, in imagining any life without fire and guns,
while clothing was easily cast aside as immaterial to comfort.
They told various stories of the possible ways in which fire was
discovered, although the one which seems perhaps the most
obvious, lightning, had to be suggested. They had heard of
making fire with flint, by rubbing sticks together, and sug-
gested that it might have been first taken from volcanic sources.
The value of fire for protection from the dangers of primitive
times necessitated some elaboration of the abundant animal
life then existing. After much individual experimentation each
child learned to make a fire and formulated the chief things
requisite to the experiment: (i) a supply of air, (2) use of in-
flammable material such as kindling, (3) proper arrangement in
stacking sticks for the admission of air. They decided that as
it was very hard to start a fire in those days, it would be well
to find some way of keeping it from going out. They discovered
that hard wood burns slowly and that by partial covering from
air fire can be kept for a long time.

3 The study of primitive life was always present in the curriculum at this
stage of growth, but by reason of its imaginative nature it varied widely
from year to year. Each year it was the outgrowth of a particular group of
children and teacher by whom it was planned and enacted. Other material
was also tried— Indian, Eskimo, African savage tribes, but the course de-
scribed seems to have been the most fruitful in its results.

* The ability to reconstruct such scenes varied with the experience of
both children and teacher.

INVENTION AND DISCOVERY 101

It was difficult 5 for one class to carry out dramatically even
the simplest imagined scenes in the daily life they were discuss-
ing or to construct adequate images of the physical surround-
ings as the setting for a story. Neither could they suggest in-
cidents which might fit this setting. Much time, therefore, was
spent in experimental work with the materials which primitive
peoples would use, and then the children could more easily
originate and dramatize the story side of the study. In addition
to their work with fire, they carried out in detail (as far as
their physical limitations would allow) such things as the
selection of stones for making weapons, cooking by roasting
and by boiling with the aid of heated stones. They talked about
the sort of place early man used for shelter, trees and caves
and their comparative merits, and how the discovery of fire
had made the cave a more comfortable and safe place to live.
The questions of where caves would be found and how they
were formed were considered very slightly. The kinds of rock
in which some of the children had seen caves, limestone and
granite, were compared with a view to the probable shape
and size of the caves in each. The various foods that could be
found by men of this period were thought of and grouped by
the children under four main heads: berries, fruits, roots, and
animal food. The sort of weapons used and the ways of getting
animal food were talked over. One child said that if they once
found nuts, they could make a trap baited with nuts for squir-
rels, and when they had a squirrel, they could bait a larger
trap for bear. The first inventions suggested were improve-
ments in weapons. Shape was suited to purpose. The club with
its inserted stones developed into the spear and axe with a
sharpened stone at the end of a handle. A question as to the
kind of stone suitable for weapons brought out the idea that
it must be such as would break in sharp edges, and that these
edges must not crumble or flake off easily. Various stones, such
as limestone, granite, slate, soapstone, and flint, were examined
for cleavage and friability and were tested by the children to

« The failure of the story and dramatic approach caused the substitution
of experiments with primitive materials.

102 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

find out which possessed these characteristics. They were, one
by one, rejected with the exception of granite, flint, and the
harder limestone. When making their clubs and spears the
children were told that guitar and violin strings had the same
characteristics as the sinews and skins, and these were used for
binding arrow-heads onto sticks. After soaking and drying,
the sinews would readily split and, when soaked again and
wound closely around the arrow-head, would shrink in dry-
ing and hold the arrow-head tightly in place. The invention of
the bow and arrow was described, and its advantages for the
tribe which possessed it were brought out by showing that men
now had a weapon which could be used from a distance, thus
lessening the risk to the user and increasing his chances of
success in hunting or defense.

Cave life as a whole, with its weapons, utensils, and clothing,
was worked out in tangible form by the children. Much other,
detailed preliminary work gave background and a setting in
which the children, in fancy, could become a tribe of primi-
tive people. Caves were constructed of various shapes and sizes
on the sand-table. Into them were put the necessary utensils
and weapons. When this was done, the class discussed the
merits of each cave, each child selecting the one he would pre-
fer. Their talk brought out various improvements, such as
blocking up the doorway and the proper placing of the fire
beneath the smoke hole. Each cave, when finished, contained
a rude spit for roasting, a stone pot for boiling, chipped out of
rock, weapons, huge stone axes and spears, a bed, and skins
of beasts that had been slain for use as clothing. In discussion
they came to see the use of the stone pot for cooking meat and
nuts in water heated to boiling by hot stones. They then heated
different kinds of stone, limestone, sandstone, slate, and granite
over bunsen burners and threw them into water to see how
this was done.

It was only after this preliminary work that one group could
appreciate Stanley Waterloo's Story of Ab enough to act out
dramatically such incidents as the meeting of the two boys
and their plans for the capture of some grazing animal by the

INVENTION AND DISCOVERY 103

construction of a pitfall in the plains below their homes,6 could
imagine and carry out more easily the autobiographical ac-
count of their own tribe, could state their problems and discuss
intelligently ways and means of solving them, and thus develop
an attitude of mind that was alert to discovery and invention.

In these various ways the children passed imaginatively
through different stages of living. Their tribe, more independ-
ent through the invention of the bow and arrow, migrated to
homes nearer the open plains in the lower part of the river
valley, where the grazing animals, which were now their special
dependence for food, were most abundant. The necessity of
hunting the mastodon was suggested by the children as the
reason for a combination with a tribe near-by. Such a hunt re-
quired many people, and its success depended upon some de-
gree of coordination under a leader, whose position had been
gained by acknowledged ability and whose commands, for the
time being, all must obey. Another possible reason for a com-
bination defense might be an appeal for help from the raids of
a cave tiger upon an isolated community. Skilful direction by
leaders was recognized as essential to success where large num-
bers were concerned.

The temporary combination for a specific aim brought the
children logically to the consideration of how a permanent
combination might develop out of the need of a change of
residence, necessitated by the migration of the animals, their
chief source of food. The children were helped to develop the
situation and physical setting out of which the need for such
a migration would probably arise. They gathered together all
the physical characteristics of their present home, the high
bank and river valley. They were told it was the time of year
when the days would begin to shorten, and the birds and
animals move southward. The experience of a bad winter the
previous year was given as a reason for moving southward with
the animals. They discussed the plan of going and, with a good
deal of help, decided that the river was the easiest route to the

« Some classes preferred the Story of Ab as told by the teacher; others de-
manded the book to be read in serial fashion week after week.

104 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

south. They quickly suggested a raft as the easiest plan for
transportation. They then organized a party, naming the
things they would take with them and the way each thing
would have to be carried.

They agreed that their leader would have to be one who had
at some previous time followed the river and found the animals
on the plains near its mouth, and they discussed the qualities
that would make a man a leader. They said he would have to
be brave and willing to meet danger, and that he must know
a great deal and own a great many arrows. They then elected
as leader one from their number. One of the children said,
"Just like voting for President." The question was asked what
name the chosen leader would have, and how people would be
named in those days. As they had no suggestions ready, they
were told the story of how each young Indian earned his name
by what he had done. Instead of suggesting a name for their
leader from the exploits of one of their own tribe, they
promptly transferred the name of a young Indian to their
leader.

The children had several times proposed finding and using
clay, but were not able to suggest how or where it could be
found. Upon starting down the river in their migration to the
plains, one child suddenly recalled the fact that he himself
had found clay in the banks overhanging a small river and
proposed that the party should have that experience on their
way down the river on rafts. In order to find out in what sort
of a place, plain or hill, high bank or low level, the clay would
be found, they experimented with clay and sand on the sand-
table and found how both would settle when the water became
still. Their surprise in finding the water perfectly clear above
the clay was very pronounced. They decided that as the clay
settled only in the glass that was kept still, the clay would be
"dropped," as they called it, in quiet waters, or "ponds." They
proposed that their party camp out on flat lands near the
river, where the clay bottom of such a pond was drying in the
sun. They made a map of this part of the river valley and a
lake in the flat plain. They put water (into which they had
stirred clay) in the hilly part of the sand-table map, so that it

INVENTION AND DISCOVERY 105

flowed down into the lake below, settled, and formed a clay
bed.

The making of clay vessels has been so often and so success-
fully worked out that for brevity's sake it seems best merely to
list the outstanding things gained by the children in the rather
long series of experimental activities incident to this phase of
the study. They worked out:

(1) The principle that the shape of a vessel should be controlled
by its use

(2) The length of time necessary for drying before firing

(3) The change of the color of ochre to red after firing

(4) The source of the black used by the Navajo Indians, soot

(5) The type of the first form of potter's wheel, a flat disk of wood
or stone turning on a smooth surface. (They made one. This
was used by some of the children in making their vessels.)

These results suggest the way in which ample time was
given the children to play and experiment with the various
raw materials used in their activities. The simplicity of the
things they played with was enriched by frequent visits to the
museum to see the results of the perfected technique of primi-
tive peoples. Their own lack of it never seemed to bother them.
Although all this experimental work took some time, the chil-
dren did not lose their sense of identification with the tribe.
They frequently discussed the individuals they were imperson-
ating, some choosing names for themselves. One called himself
Clay-finder.

About this time also the children began to show a more
alert interest in the tribe's doings and were able to realize and
picture the physical features of its setting much more intelli-
gently than before.

They went over the uses to which they could put the different
parts of the animals the clan would kill, the flesh and marrow
of the bones for food, the bones and horns for weapons. Wool
was studied to see the use to which the hair of an animal could
be put; the inside fibres of the bark of the basswood were torn
out and woven into mats; and the children tried dyeing the
fibres with dogwood and berries gathered in the lot. Their plan
in doing this was to select the number of basswood fibres

io6 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

needed to make the mat and then dye half this number for
making a design in weaving. They experimented with border
designs on paper and first drew these with curved lines. When
they tried to weave the design into the mat, however, they
found that they had to remake their pattern in straight lines to
accommodate it to the stiff material.

While these developments in making utensils of pottery and
other material were taking place, there was talk of how certain
animals might have become domesticated. Their own idea was
that people would bring home wounded animals for their
children to play with. It was suggested that young animals
would be even nicer, for they would grow up with the children
and gradually become tame. The fact was brought out that in
a herd of animals one of the pack often signals to the others
when an enemy is near. This suggested to the children that the
dogs might signal to men in the same way and so be good
watchers. Dogs might also be of use in aiding the hunt. Talk
then continued of the flocks people would accumulate after
they once began to domesticate animals. This led to conjec-
ture as to the difference this might make in the home of the
tribe, as grass would be necessary for the flocks. In addition,
they thought the sheep would need a great deal of light and
air, and that water would be required. They accordingly de-
cided to migrate.7

Arrived at the grassy plain, they decided to be a small tribe
of about twelve people with thirty sheep. They thought it not
unlikely that another tribe would come to the same place,
since the plain would feed more than thirty sheep. When this
happened, the two tribes consolidated and arranged to unite
their forces, since less men would be needed to watch the sheep
and it was desirable to have some of them at home for other
work. In first planning the consolidation the children thought
it would be very bad, because it would be the surest way to
bring about a fight. They said that if the two tribes ever wanted

* For their migration they needed tents and began the construction of
one large enough to hold the "tribe." This was made of unbleached muslin
and, when finished, was taken to the field and set up where they encamped
for the morning.

INVENTION AND DISCOVERY 107

to separate they could not tell which sheep belonged to each
tribe.

In one year the experience of Abraham and Lot was one of
the stories told them to illustrate the character of shepherd
life and the conditions and situations likely to cause difficulty.
These stories, rewritten by the group either working together
or as individuals, were often printed by the older children in
large size type on the school press and became the basis of their
study of language, while they also served to vivify the story
they were dramatizing.

STORY OF ABRAHAM AND LOT

THE LORD THEIR GOD TOLD ABRAHAM TO GO OUT OF
THE COUNTRY. ABRAHAM TOOK LOT WITH HIM. HE
WAS ABRAHAM'S BROTHER'S SON. ABRAHAM AND LOT
WENT OUT OF THE COUNTRY. THEY STAYED TOGETHER
FOR A WHILE, THEN THEY PARTED. THEY WENT ABOUT
TOGETHER, FINDING PASTURE FOR THEIR HERDS. THEN
THEY PARTED BECAUSE THERE WASN'T ENOUGH FOOD
FOR BOTH HERDS AND THEY COULD NOT TELL THEIR
ANIMALS APART AND SO THEY QUARRELED. THEN ABRA-
HAM TOLD LOT THAT HE COULD CHOOSE WHICH WAY
HE WANTED TO GO. HE CHOSE EAST. THEN ABRAHAM
WENT UP ON THE MOUNTAINS. THEN GOD TOLD HIM
TO LOOK EAST AND WEST AND NORTH AND SOUTH AND
SAID, "I WILL GIVE TO YOU ALL THE LAND THAT YOU
SEE."

The roving shepherd tribe now settled down for a space and
after its consolidation and subsequent readjustments chose for
the site of its permanent village an island in a river, a situation
thought advantageous because of the protection afforded by
the river. The children thought that the animals they were
hunting, cattle, horses, small deer, would not frequent a settled
place. As this village was on an island, the habits of the animals
feeding on the adjoining plains would not be much disturbed
because of the broad expanse of running water between the
village and the plains. On one side of the river island the land

io8 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

was low and the children called it "Riverland." The fact was
brought out that the island was formed where the river depos-
ited the fine soil that it carried during flood times. Here wild
wheat was growing, which the women of the village gathered
and threshed and ground for food. The method of grinding was
left as a problem to be worked out after they had done more
work with various cereals in the kitchen, so that there would
be a present reason for its solution.

The earliest differentiation of labor was brought out in the
occupations in the new homes. The old hunters confined their
energies to bringing in small game from near their homes. The
young hunters were the main dependence of the tribe, and the
women and children gathered moss for beds, nuts and fruits
for food, made the fireplaces, and kept the home fires burning.

The children asked who would be the most powerful people
in a settled agricultural tribe and considered the question im-
portant. In the hunting tribes the old men had given place to
the younger men when they were no longer able to take the
lead in a hunt; but now it was concluded that the old men
would have the most influence, as they would have the largest
experience and could best direct the younger people.

In order to enable the children to comprehend to some de-
gree the length of time which elapsed between even slight
improvements in the ways of living of primitive peoples whose
lives they were relating, they were told something of the
changes of climate during the glacier period and of the migra-
tions of the animals. The length of time was made clear by
referring it to the successive generations of the Ab family, for
the children were so much attached to the name that it was
continued from age to age. The increase in the number of the
tribe during the successive generations was calculated, adding
by threes, fives, and tens. The children added up to one hun-
dred and twenty by tens and were then shown another way of
saying it, i.e., twelve tens equal one hundred and twenty.
Most of them knew this, but it was a starting point for further
number work, and they then added together numbers of
flocks of sheep, or tribes of people.

The next advance toward civilization was the making of

INVENTION AND DISCOVERY 109

cloth from wool, a step beyond the clothes of skin or feathers
with which, until now, the tribe had been clothed. Raw wool
was given to the children to examine and decide how the fibres
could be made into yarn. When they had pointed out the
crinkles which would hold the fibres together, they spun wool
with their fingers and wound it on a stone. The weighted
thread twisted round their fingers, and this, coupled with what
they had observed about spinning, led one or two of them to
suggest something that would spin like a top. They then were
shown pictures of a spindle, a spindle whorl, and so on. Thus
the primitive way of spinning and its gradual development
became clear to them as they reconstructed and gradually im-
proved the primitive tools. Information about a process be-
came knowledge of a process because it was the result of experi-
ence. The primitive method of weaving was also taken up. The
way of carrying on this experimentation varied with teacher
and year. Where there was keen interest and an inventive spirit,
the children were given the raw wool, and the beginning stages
of carding and spinning were carried through in the classroom.
Otherwise, the spinning and the weaving were left for the
period in the textile room. This flexible and helpful coopera-
tion between specialist and group teacher made quick adjust-
ments easy. It was possible to "strike while the iron was hot"
or to leave an idea such as the spinning or weaving to be
worked out more slowly and in detail in the textile studio.

The children now pictured freely other tribes than their
own, living near and far, and dramatized meeting with them
and the first exchange of goods such as wheat for baskets or
wool, etc. In this exchange which the children were told was
called "bartering," the articles made by them were used.

In the on-going story different groups worked out the dis-
covery of metals, in various ways. One year there was a dis-
cussion of all the metals known to the children, together with
their uses. Iron, lead, tin, copper, and zinc were compared as
to their hardness, weight, and the amount of heat required to
bring them to the melting point. Tin, zinc, and lead were
melted over a bunsen burner and poured into water to cool.
Since all the children had handled shot, they were interested

no THE DEWEY SCHOOL

in the spherical form assumed in cooling when the metal was
poured from a height. In heating the metals they noted the
time necessary to melt lead and tin and learned that copper
and iron wire did not melt, but became red hot and could be
flattened easily by hammering. They were shown metals in the
natural state and given the word ore as a general term. They
discussed how metals were probably discovered. It was sug-
gested that people may have found melted copper in the char-
coal on the hearth, and they were given the various stories
about the discovery of iron.

The next step was the construction of a smelting place of
clay or stones. The chief problems for the children to solve in
this undertaking were the position of the chimney and the ar-
rangement for proper draught. They found by experience the
advantage of a steady draught, how to protect the fire from
sudden changes of wind, and that hard wood makes a hotter
fire than soft. Further experimentation was necessary before
they could understand the principle of draught. With the help
of a taper, they investigated the currents of air in the room and
found the current of cold air from the windows sinking to the
floor and a current of warm air leaving the room at the top
of the door. They then appreciated that the hot air in their
furnace would rise and understood the necessity of a chimney
for an intake of a continuous supply of cold air. Tin and zinc
were melted successfully in a few of the best constructed smelt-
ers, and the group, now quite intelligent as to the principle,
pooled their experience and labor to construct a larger one in
which ore was to be melted for the tribe's arrow-heads. Discus-
sion of their plan for this made it clear that in order to form
the melted ore, it was necessary to have molds. More discus-
sion followed as to the material from which these would be
made, resulting in the making of molds of clay and sand into
which the molten lead was poured.8

So much of the work assumed the form of play that the chil-
dren were not conscious of the knowledge they were gaining.
They handled several kinds of metals, both in the ore and in

* Copper was melted for them from the ore by means of a blow pipe so
they would understand how it could be done.

INVENTION AND DISCOVERY 111

the pure state, and gained a knowledge of the processes by
which apparent "heavy stones," as they first thought them, be-
came changed into articles of great utility. Incidentally, they
learned how the metals unite as in the making of bronze.
They heated copper in the furnace and then, in order to make
it plastic, submerged it in water and learned that copper unites
with the air in the process of heating and forms a black scale
which comes off in water.

While working with metals, many stories were told illus-
trating the advantages of metals and the value that would be
attached to a knowledge of them by a tribe ignorant of how
to work them. In order to demonstrate this, the class was
divided into tribes, each tribe selecting what seemed to be a
desirable location for a special occupation. One tribe, in-
terested chiefly in raising wheat, selected a fertile plain near a
range of hills where they could get some ore when necessary.
This tribe naturally became interested in the way in which
various foods, such as the wild cereals found, were "domes-
ticated" (the word cultivated was given them) and the relation
of climate and natural environment to the raising of these
foods. The resulting effects upon the living habits of the people
were brought out. These occupations were naturally closely
related to the preparation and cooking of food and the changes
that developed.

Another tribe, interested in sheep raising, chose a valley with
grazing plains and made a study of textiles and the sources of
clothing. The metal workers picked out a site in the mountains
near a river, and a fourth group selected the seacoast for its
abundance of fish, shells, and pearls. Each tribe, after imagin-
ing themselves settled in their new homes, began to perfect the
one line of labor chosen and to decide how they could obtain
other necessities of life. The tribe along the seashore needed
boats and endeavored to think out some method of making
them. The tribe raising wheat used first a bent twig dragged
over the ground as a means of loosening the soil, then thought
of taming oxen and training them to drag an improved plow;
they also worked out a flail for threshing grain. The shepherds
decided on the shelter for themselves and their flocks and dis-

iis> THE DEWEY SCHOOL

cussed the raising of sheep. Each tribe decided the number of
families they would have and the number of persons in a fam-
ily. Most of the class objected to having any children in the
family, only one announcing his intention to have a "nice com-
fortable family of five."

The various tribes next sought some method of trading, or
bartering, in order to secure the products of others. They at-
tempted to find some standard of value, but found it difficult
not to rate highest some rare shells which the people from the
seashore brought to trade for wheat or sheep. A few children
showed some skill in driving a bargain.

Intercourse between tribes for the sake of barter involved the
subject of transportation. Most of the children had so little
idea of distance that it was necessary to build up something of
a background of experience. They were asked how long it
would require to walk the longest distance they knew definitely
—from the school, downtown. After much discussion of their
own and their friends' experience, they finally arrived at the
distance that could be walked in an hour and calculated the
distance that might be covered in a day or in a week. With
this idea of average distance reckoned in time, the children
returned to their tribe and its situation. After more thinking
they found that, with burdens to carry and a way that led not
over smooth roads, but over mountains and plains covered with
vegetation, a new estimate of how far the tribe could carry their
produce for exchange would be necessary. Of course, the idea
of animals as beasts of burden occurred to all the children, and
they spent some time investigating the different types of ani-
mals that could be so used. The typical burden-bearing animals
were cut from paper, and a study made of their habits. As a
result, they concluded that all burden-bearing animals are
"grass-eating ruminants."

A dramatic summing up in story form of the social organi-
zation of the Bronze Age completed this year's work. It may
not be necessary to remind the reader that at the same time
that this dramatic study of primitive life and experimentation
in its ways of living were going on, the same materials and
similar though modern tools and ideas were being used in the

POOLING THEIR EXPERIENCE AND LABOR TO
CONSTRUCT A LARGER SMELTER

INVENTION AND DISCOVERY 113

shop, kitchen, studio, music room, and garden. Here also, em-
phasis was laid on the relation of materials to their uses, the
value of the inventive attitude, of designs and plans, and the
r61es of the different forms of communication in all their ac-
tivities. Museums and books were constantly used as sources
so that the children in no way felt out-of-joint with their pres-
ent. Instead, they gained a new point of view as to how the
present had come to be. The relation of the sort of place they
lived in to the type of thing they did grew clear and definite in
their minds as they pictured the physical setting needed for rais-
ing sheep and cattle, or as a source for their clay or coveted
metals. As each phase of industry developed, attention concen-
trated upon its natural habitat, and as one occupation suc-
ceeded another, the children traveled in imagination till they
found the locality especially suitable. Meantime in their sand
and clay maps each new environment was added to those pre-
viously brought up, until all the main features of physiographic
structure were both introduced and placed in their relation-
ships to one another. The child thus had a picture of a typical
section of the earth's surface, of the way in which its various
features—mountains, uplands, river valleys, and seas— connect
with one another and with the activities of human life. The
large amount of imaginative abstraction and arrangement of
the natural features of their self-constructed sand maps, so that
they were suitable for the changing sequence of their activities,
proved an intellectual exercise of great importance.

SUMMARY

This natural setting of man and his occupations, the basis
of their future, was clothed with human significance to these
little actors of primitive life as they imaginatively wandered
in the sand-box hills and valleys of their tribal habitation. In
the process, many scientific facts of geology, of chemistry, of
physics, or of biology, found their way into the sinews of their
intellectual wings.

In addition to such a view of geography in a human setting
gained through constant dramatization of imagined situations

n4 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

and behavior, these children had an early glimpse into the be-
ginnings of the social organizations of tribal life, in its various
stages of development. Certain definite associations were built
up between people, their social life, and the land they occu-
pied. Ideas were gained as to a gradual progress in man's way
of living— his forms of shelter, his clothing, and kinds of food
as well as of the part that invention and discovery had played
in this development.

As the year drew to its close the children summarized in writ-
ten records and dramatic plays what the experience had made
real to them. Facts about the gradual development of better
ways of getting food, finding shelter, and the making of cloth-
ing, of tools, of the means of defense, and the attendant dis-
coveries and inventions were thus brought out. The records
specified many of the different materials found on the earth
which could be used in their natural state, also those which
must be made over or refined. The general conclusion was that,
man's necessity was the cause for change, and "using your
head" was the means of invention.

The long stretch of time between the imagined scene of the
study and the actual present seemed to cause no difficulty. It
was not difficult for these children to doff their roles as mem-
bers of a primitive tribe and don their parts as children of a
Chicago school in 1900. The needs and therefore the interests
and the duties of the wood-gatherer, the fire-tender, the shelter
or clothing-maker, or the cook remain the same from one age
to another. It is the art of living that changes and progresses.
This the children seemed to recognize in all phases of their
work and play, whether constructive or experimental. Their
activities were real and continuing, because they answered the
genuine, ever present needs of life.

The beginnings of many kinds of activity challenged each
child to experiment along lines of his own interests and choos-
ing, to make, to decorate, to contrive, and to invent. There
were rafts and dugouts to be made for the migrating tribe; bows
and arrows or other weapons must be strung and fashioned
or traps made for the sabre-toothed tiger or other dangerous
animals. A way must be found to harvest the good wild wheat

INVENTION AND DISCOVERY 115

of the river land and then to grind it. A use had been found
for the newly discovered clay, and ideas were many for making
bowls and utensils of all kinds. The potter's wheel was redis-
covered. The cooperative effort of the shop director and the
young inventors produced a rude, first potter's wheel. New dis-
coveries led to new needs and these to new inventions, and
made increasing demand for skill— skill in the arts of construc-
tion and communication. What each one did was never fully
appreciated until it was passed on to others, and what one
received from others frequently had to be tested to be ap-
proved. Language was useful. One must write as well as speak,
must read as well as listen in order to share more widely and
in turn profit by such sharing. It was necessary to know how
to count and measure and use the necessary tools in order to
put ideas into concrete forms that were satisfactory and beau-
tiful.

All this was true of the fine as well as of the useful arts; the
beginnings of the former naturally grew out of a finer and
deeper appreciation of the latter, and a basic and fundamental
relationship between the two was established. In their creative
work in music, as in art, the influence of this imaginative life
of primitive times was most marked and was used as far as
possible. The function of time in producing melody grew plain
to the children as they listened to the rhythmic beat of the tom-
tom and caught the meaning of a metrical succession of notes
all on one pitch.

This imagined and dramatized story of man's long climb
to better ways of living brought the children, at the end of
the year, close to the period when authentic history begins.
Through being actors in their own retelling of the probable
story of civilization they had gained a background of experi-
ence for the next year's continued study of the actual records
of specific peoples.9

There is now perhaps too great emphasis in many schools
on the "Here and Now" principle in selecting the constructive

» Much of the material In this chapter is taken from John Dewey, "His-
torical Developments of Invention and Occupation, Central Principles,"
Elementary School Record, 1900.

ii6 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

work of small children from the confused and complicated
modern environment. Unreflective selection in reproductive
play may include modern sky-scrapers, ocean liners, part of a
National Exposition, or the ferry-boats of New York harbor.
This chapter points out in detail that a skilled adult mind
must operate in such selection. It also presents an approach
which will leave the child in full possession of his inventive
ability to be used in developing the simple activities and under-
takings which he sees have been and are essential in social re-
lations and organizations.

CHAPTER VII

PROGRESS THROUGH EXPLORATION
AND DISCOVERY

GROUP v (AGE EIGHT)

JLHE homeroom for Group V, medium in size with southern
exposure, was equipped with a geographic sand tray, black-
board space, table, and closet. Because of the constant stream
of visitors each room was supplied with extra chairs, and the
mental picture of every classroom should include a number of
adults looking on.1 The group was under the direction of one
of the instructors in science, with a teacher in history cooper-
ating.2 The occupational work centered around the trading
and maritime activities of the Phoenicians, their exploration
of the Mediterranean basin, and commerce with its various
outstanding settlements, and then moved, on to the larger
topic of world exploration and discovery. It must be remem-
bered that as each group passed from home room to shop, to
laboratory, to studio, to music room, the things they did or
expressed, related to or illustrated as far as possible the activi-
ties that went on in the historical study they were dramatizing.
In previous years these children had gained a working knowl-
edge of some of the occupations and social relationships of
present life and an idea of how the present had come to
be, through their study of primitive life. They had seen
that any change of the physical situation of a tribal group
necessitated and conditioned a revision of its social program
and a redistribution of individual duties. Further, it was only
through the invention of devices which made for better living
conditions, more efficient weapons for defense and the getting

1 As a rule the children were astonishingly unconscious of being observed,

2 Mary Hill; Laura Runyon.

117

n8 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

of food, that man had come to a more settled and secure way
of living.

The choice of subject-matter for this year had been, as for
all years, the result of much experimentation in order to find
the type of civilization which possesses a progressive quality,
an on-going, out-flowing, and developing way of living which
gave a "go" to the story, linked it with the previous study,
carried it on to the next step, and at the same time satisfied the
spirit of romance and adventure which is rife at this age. In
one year a detailed study of the American Indians, their in-
ventions and customs, was followed by a study of the discovery
of the Indians by the white men. Then came some of the ex-
plorations which made known the form of the earth and its
larger geographical features and forces. While satisfactory in
some respects, the Indian civilization is so highly static in its
type that an advance into the next era of culture was not easily
made.

THE STUDY OF THE PHOENICIAN CIVILIZATION 3

The Phoenicians were finally chosen for the study of this
year because the fixed habitat of this people was similar to the
imaginary location of the tribe of metal workers of the previ-
ous year, and yet presented conditions that were different from
and unfavorable to the earlier life experience of the tribe, up
to this time a nomadic pastoral people living on a plain be-
yond the mountains. New problems would have to be met and
solved in this unfamiliar environment. In this year, also, when
the children began a serious use of the symbols of reading, writ-
ing, and numbers, a study of the Phoenician civilization that
had spread these conveniences through the then known world
(the Mediterranean basin), seemed particularly appropriate.
It also furnished the link between the life of primitive man,
as developed in the previous year and the following age of
discovery in the world's history, when knowledge of the earth's
form and some conception of its physical forces were gained.

» Laura Louise Runyan, The Teaching of Elementary History in the
Dewey School, University of Chicago, June, 1906. This account is indebted
to Miss Runyan for extracts.

EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY 119

For a tribe of people like die Phoenicians, with the sea in
front and mountains behind, agriculture and flocks and herds
were impossible as a means of support. The conditions had to
yield a means of subsistence, however, if this tribe were to
continue. How this could be done was the first problem given
the children. Out of their past experience with ancient peoples,
they themselves suggested that the sea might furnish fish and
the mountains, metals and timber, and that these, if means of
conveyance were found, might be exchanged with other tribes
for wheat or wool. After much further discussion the group
wrote out a description of their physical situation and plans
for the future. This took the form of a recital by various mem-
bers of the group, telling how they had come in their flight
from some unfavorable situation to a physical situation similar
to that of the Phoenician coast.

The children, in their role of Phoenician traders, met the
problems and inconveniences similar to those found in the
earliest form of trade by barter. As indicated in the children's
own records, a need arose for persons able to make usable ar-
ticles from raw materials and for those who exchange these
articles for others needed but which cannot be produced. In
such relationships the child sees the need of the middleman.
A dramatic picture of these early bartering relationships and
of their development into trade was imagined by the children.
They imagined themselves Phoenician sailors landing at some
barbaric settlement of the African coast, and they saw the prob-
able events which took place. The sailors, laying down their
goods, would retire to their vessels. The barbarians would
creep out of the bushes, inspect, and then place on the sand
their produce, shells, ivory, or whatnot, and in turn, withdraw.
Then came the inspection by the sailors of the offers made and
acceptance or refusal of part or all of the exchange and, in case
of refusal, the second chance given the natives to increase their
offerings.

Such a scene carries with it a spirit of adventure, a tang of
excitement; it can illustrate how cupidity or generosity would
develop, how gradually the confidence necessary for a perma-
nent trading relationship can be established. These transac-

120 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

tions also little by little establish the reputation for probity
of the sailors at home with the merchants who had entrusted
them with goods for sale.

THE PRACTICAL APPROACH TO MATHEMATICS

To carry on their work successfully the first merchant and
trader would need to invent, adopt, or adapt a system of meas-
urements and weights. He would need a numerical system and
a system of records; he must plan how to utilize the labor of
others, how to combine with others, and how to exclude others
from his field of labor. Through enacting their roles these chil-
dren came to appreciate the tasks of these first carriers of the
world's commerce, and how a system probably evolved by which
the products of a people could be measured and valued, and
the records of such transactions kept. This gave reality to the
point of view that the origin of writing, of number, and of the
system of weights and measures grew out of an attempt to solve
the problem similar to this imaginative one. This problem was
formulated by asking, How could a merchant trader from the
Phoenician tribe tell the value of his merchandise as compared
with that of other merchants? How could he record future ex-
change of merchandise? Only a word is necessary to link this
situation with the rdles of the salesman, the commercial trav-
eler, or the advertising agent of the present.

The question of records seemed easiest, and the child who
acted as trader at the time devised his own system of records.
This was usually a picture of the article exchanged with marks
by each to indicate the number. Thus a trade of fish for wheat
was indicated by a bag and a fish opposite each other, with
marks to indicate the number exchanged. When, however,
other products were used in quantity, and it was necessary to
select and name a part from the whole quantity, a more def-
inite system was demanded.

The ability to initiate solutions of the problems which thus
arose varied with different groups of children and with the in-
dividuals within the group. Parts of the body as means of meas-
urement were suggested. The distance from the end of the

EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY 121

thumb to the first joint and the span of the hand were used
as units of measure. The full length of the fore-arm and the
pace were also used. The transition from a somewhat irregular
unit to an adopted unit could usually be obtained from the
class. For example, the distance from the tip of the middle fin-
ger to the elbow was used as a unit for measuring cloth and
called a "cubit." After this had been used in many measure-
ments, a story was told of a Phoenician who went to trade in
cloth and, noticing that the men in the market place were of
different heights, selected the man with the longest arm from
whom to purchase cloth. The other merchants noticed this and
called a meeting to decide what should be done. At this point
the class was called upon for suggestions. One child thought
that the shortest man's arm might be taken as a standard and
others stop short of the elbow in their measurements; others
thought that the tallest man's arm might be used and the little
man measure above the elbow. When, however, some one sug-
gested that a middle-sized man be selected, and the rest get
sticks just the length of his cubit, all agreed that this would be
the best plan. The next most apparent need was a unit of
weight. In group discussion they decided that water would
make the most convenient and common thing to use and talked
over ways and means of making a standard. Each child finally
made and paraffined a square box the size of his smallest linear
unit— the distance from the tip of the thumb to the first joint.
This was filled with water, weighed, and taken as the standard
unit of weight.

At this moment of partial solution of their immediate prob-
lem as traders, namely, that of developing a practical method
of barter, the children's interest was easily directed to the stand-
ards and tables of measurement used today. For the shop they
made their own foot rulers and yardsticks. Many spent spare
time at home devising scales which were then tested, improved,
and reconstructed in the shop. The laboratory scales were in
demand to get the proper amount of clay for ounce, two-ounce,
half-pound or pound weights. These were molded to the form
that each child thought most serviceable. Liquid measures—
half-bushel, gallon, quart, pint, and gill— were constructed and

122 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

their relations determined by measuring. The numerical sym-
bols were improved from time to time. The children were
shown primitive systems of counting. One child introduced a
diagonal line across four vertical marks to indicate five, the
common method of tallying in their games. Another child came
one day and said she knew a new way to count and put on the
board the Roman numerals to X. The class was then interested
in seeing how IV could indicate one less and VI one more, than
V; that X was two V's, and that less or more than X was indi-
cated by the position of the I to the right or left of the X. The
pleasure of the class when they comprehended the significance
of this device proved how much a matter for thought a number
system had been to them.

INTEREST IN WRITTEN AND DRAMATIC EXPRESSION

Concurrent with this construction of a number system, the
need for a more accurate method of written record than that
of rude pictures was felt. The use of a part of a picture to stand
for the whole, then a sign to stand for a sound resulting in an
alphabet was worked out with suggestions from the teacher*
The arbitrariness of this system was reflected in two alphabets
invented by the children. All this gave meaning to the reading
and writing which were emphasized in this year. The symbols
of social intercourse worked out naturally centered about the
trader and his experiences. The child, at this stage, still chiefly
interested in himself, was, of course, the trader. The method
adopted was that of imaginary travels for exploration and
trade. Story-telling and dramatization were used as in the pre-
ceding year. The events narrated at the beginning of the year
were chiefly confined to the experiences of the past year: the
trader had met with strange peoples, friendly or hostile; he
had had to make his wants known by signs; he had asked only
for things he knew about, and hence his increase in knowledge
had been slight. As the year went on, however, more and more
content was apparent in the stories of the children, and ac-
counts of new processes and devices of manufacture were re-
lated or demonstrated. The physical features of their play coun-

EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY 123

try were pictured in map or sand-box. The high, rock coast
with its stretch of shore along the sea was planned and built;
lead and iron ore were cleverly hidden in the clefts of the
mountains to be discovered later; and miniature forests of oak,
pine, and other trees were set up for the forests. The aid of the
art teacher was sought in developing the background and set-
ting for the scene. To give an impression of distance to the re-
gion, plain blue wall paper was tacked on a frame as large as
the sand box. On this the children drew a landscape showing
a continuation of that they had planned in the sand box. The
blue background served as the sky, clouds were added with
chalk.

MANUAL TRAINING

The main purpose of the work was to stimulate the chil-
dren's minds to study and, so far as they were able, to seek
solutions for certain of the problems of the Phoenician type
of civilization that must be solved in order that progress in
comfort and convenience in living might be made. Thus the
children carried out inquiry into the origin of products and
the development of processes which have transformed modes
of living from primitive crude forms to the present. The sort
of houses that they as a Phoenician tribe should build was dis-
cussed, and it was decided that stone might be used, since there
was such an abundance. The question of how It could be made
to stick together was brought up and led to a discussion of lime
in its native state and its use as mortar. The children then
turned into masons, made mortar boxes, trowels, and a sand
sieve in the shop. Lime was procured, and experiments were
carried on to demonstrate the effect of water upon it. Mortar
was made and used to build the walls of a typical house of that
time and region. A bridge was necessary to cross a ravine;
bricks were made from clay; and the bridge built in the form
of a keystone arch.

Some difficulty was found in making the sides of the stone
walls straight. How this could be done in real building was the
next inquiry, and the principle of the plumb-line was worked
out. The globe was used to show how the plumb-line appeared

124 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

with relation to it, and it was found that "right angles to the
surface" would describe it. "Up*' was then defined as away
from the center, and "down" as toward the center. This was
connected with the study of weights, and gravitation was de-
fined by the children as a force pulling toward the center of
the earth. Weight represented the strength of this pull on the
substance. "But hot air goes up" was brought up immediately
as a contradiction of the law of gravitation. After discussion
and experimentation it was concluded that those things that
are heavier, such as cold air, force others, such as hot air, out
of their way. Liquids, which move easily, are pushed aside by
moving air or by liquids of greater density. The children were
helped to relate this fact to the currents of air and water on the
earth and to develop something of a conception of air pressure.
They were reminded of the weight of still air and their fre-
quent experience of leaning against a strong wind.

Gravitation was taken up from different points of view. The
earth as a whole was compared with a magnet. The attraction
of all things toward the center of the earth was defined as due
to gravitation, and the effect is weight. A barometric tube was
examined to show that air has weight, and that its pressure is
its attraction to the earth by gravitation. Some of the children
seemed to doubt that it was air that supported the mercury in
the tube. They were allowed to experiment. A small tube was
exhausted by filling one side of a "U" tube with mercury. The
end was then sealed and the mercury allowed to flow out at the
open end until the pressure in the pan sustained the weight in
the closed tube. They were told that mercury was about four-
teen times as heavy as water and asked to calculate the height
of a column of water that could be supported by air. A water
wheel was discussed and its use seen to depend upon the weight
of water and the weight referred to as the attraction of gravi-
tation.

One year the children made a large map as an aid to story-
telling. The Mediterranean Sea was painted in blue enamel
on the bottom of a galvanized iron pan. The surrounding
countries were then built up in plaster of Paris, papier-miche,

EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY 125

and putty, and were covered with enamel paint in shades
of brown and green to distinguish the mountains from the
plains. The sea was filled with water, and each trader loaded
his boat with merchandise and sailed it to the place where he
expected to trade. Each captain must know his country and
something of its people. As a search for tin took these Phoeni-
cian sailors as far as England, the development of navigation
was discussed so far as the interest and the ingenuity of the
children seemed to make it worth while.

In the shop, a rude boat was made. The principle of how to
overcome friction as much as possible by a pointed bow and
stern was worked out, and the boat contrasted with the flat
one made the year before by burning a dugout. The question of
how a sail worked, especially in sailing against the wind, was
solved. In the science laboratory the constructive imagination
of the children was stimulated to suggest ways in which the diffi-
culties of these first wanderers might be overcome. They saw
that keeping an accurate record of a route for others involved
all the difficulties of map making by observation and instru-
ments and the problem of how to secure a record of distance
traveled on the sea. For the latter the children first suggested
anchoring a buoy to which a string was attached which could be
measured on the way back. From this they were led to the idea
of measuring space by rate of speed and then to the idea of logs
and knots as indicating the number of leagues traveled per hour
by a sailing vessel. Sounding, as a means of finding the right
depth of water, introduced the fathom or the full stretch of a
man's arms.

In one year under another teacher the study 4 included a
migration (by the class) to Greece, where a highly different
civilization from the Phoenician was in progress. Here, the ag-
ricultural conditions and peasant life were described as given
by Hesiod in Words and Days, The relation of the mountain-
ous character of Greece to the individual development of states

* University Record, Vol. Ill, No. 32, Nov. 4, 1898, p. 201. Teacher,
Katherine Camp.

126 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

was noted. The early Cretan civilization also holds possibili-
ties to show the growth of early communal and political life. In
contrast to the dynamic character of this and the early Greek
civilization, the Chaldean, Assyrian, and the Egyptian, while
containing many possibilities, were by reason of natural geo-
graphic situation too static in character 'to make the story of
the entire human race continuous and swiftly-moving enough
to hold the attention and interest of this age.

The constructive work of the group was in accord with the
many activities of the historical drama they were reconstruct-
ing. In his study and reproduction of typical industries or oc-
cupations, constant use was made of the child's power to initi-
ate, to take crude material, and to find, as the early peoples
did, the way and the means of fashioning needed results. He
became familiar with the typical forms of all materials used
by or about him, wood before it is dressed into lumber, ores,
or stones, wool, and food. In carrying out some industrial proc-
ess, chosen for its interest to the children and its typical social
nature, general ideas of the relation of heat to the solid, liquid,
and gaseous state of matter were developed. Crystallization and
the beginning of the study of combustion, because of the neces-
sity for its control, were carried into the form of questions to
be answered by definite experiments. From this time on, the
child can realize that an experiment is a definite question, the
answer to which is to be used in the process out of which it
arose. Science, therefore, for this group was connected rather
than differentiated. It was taken up as involved in the study
of cooking, or of history, and not as a subject by itself. In cook-
ing, the child learned to recognize food in its natural forms, to
classify these roughly as to plant or animal, or as to their nature
as part of the plant—root, stem, fruit, or seed. In history, as he
journeyed with his chosen explorers, he was helped to observe
how life— plant, animal, and human— has adapted itself to cli-
mate, to soil, and to physiographical structure; he sees what
part the large physical forces and processes have played and are
playing in the evolution of the globe, and how they were and
are related to the problems of navigation and of commerce and
have been used to solve these problems.

EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY 127

THE STUDY OF WORLD TRAVELERS

Chronologically, there is an impossible gulf between the
early Phoenician explorers and the world travelers who first
brought the whole round world into ken. Psychologically, how-
ever, the child passes swiftly across the gulf of time on the wings
of his imagination. Eager to get on in the fascinating story of
discovery, he accepts brief outlines of the intervening years
as a base for his thinking and finds it easy to go with Marco
Polo on his voyage of world discovery to the East, with Prince
Henry of Portugal to the coast of Africa, or with the Spaniards
to America.5

The starting point again varied with the interest of the chil-
dren and grew out of their class discussion. Sometimes incidents
in the life of an explorer were told or read by them. As a be-
ginning of the study of Prince Henry of Portugal, the children
were asked to pick out on the globe the largest masses of land.
As each child decided on what he thought was a continent (the
word was given to them), he wrote its name on the board. In
this way they located the six continents and then agreed on a
definition of a continent, incidentally defining an island and
an isthmus in the process of discussion.

The question was then asked if any child knew which were
the first parts of the globe to be explored and inhabited. Most
of the children agreed on Europe or Asia by eliminating North
and South America and Africa. Those who had studied the
Phoenician civilization were the first to develop this idea and
pointed out the region around the Mediterranean which had
been explored and settled. They looked at the curious map
of the early cartographers, showing strange animals in the un-
known regions and the encircling, whirling sea which was sup-
posed to surround everything. These and other early notions

o In some years this was followed by Magellan, Sir Francis Drake, and
Captain Cook. Books used by the teacher for biographic material were:
C. K. Adams, Christopher Columbus; Geo. M. Towle, Magellan, Hezekiah
Butterworth, The Story of Magellan; Geo. M. Towle, Drake the Sea King
and Prince Henry the Navigator; Captain Cook's description of his voy-
ages; Edward R. Shaw, Discoveries and Explorers; and Daniel Defoe, Robin-
son Crusoe.

128 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

of the form of the world interested them and gave them some-
thing of a feeling of superiority or at least confidence in their
own vantage point of superior knowledge.

The limits of Prince Henry's route were pointed out on the
map—his observatory at Sagres in Spain, and India. Selected
anecdotes to show his desire to find his way to India around
Africa gave the children a sympathetic understanding of his
motives. They then speculated on how he would go about it.
Most of them wanted him to go through the Mediterranean Sea
and Suez Canal, finding the names of seas and countries as they
pointed out the way.

Digression was made here to tell the story of the hostility of
the Moors to the Christians, the lands held by each, and the
efforts the Christians had made to recover Jerusalem. The ef-
fect of the Crusades in making known to Western countries the
rich products of the East was pointed out.

Some of the children thought Prince Henry might build a
ship like Nansen's, and this led back to the kind of ships that
were used in that day and the few instruments available for
guidance at sea. Some of the children had dwelt enough on
Nansen's thought in arranging for his voyage to see that study
and planning were desirable. They could therefore understand
why Prince Henry built an observatory where he gathered men
for study on the problems of better instruments and methods
of recording. This brought up the subject of map making, and
each child was asked to bring in a map showing how he came
from his home to the school. These maps, finally made by all
the children, showed a great difference in accuracy. Only one
child thought of representing the distance by a scale. The ex-
perience, however, made them appreciate to some degree the
series of maps in Henry the Navigator by C. R. Beazley, which
well illustrate the evolution of map making. The children were
then given a certain amount of detailed instruction in map
drawing. This was only enough to meet the needs of the mo-
ment. At the same time the shop director, the art teacher, or
the special number teacher also cooperated by developing to
some degree beginning notions of ratio, proportion, and sym-
metry.

EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY 129

The length of time spent in preparation was dwelt upon in
order to impress upon the children the meagerness of equip-
ment and knowledge that handicapped these earliest explorers.
The slowness of the actual start was explained by a description
of the strong northeast trade-winds and the ocean currents they
would encounter on the west coast of Portugal. The belief that
if one went far south he would find that the sea was boiling,
that men would turn black, and if they got caught in a whirl-
ing current they would never return, was used to begin an in-
vestigation of the larger physical forces and relations of the
earth. They took up the reason for wind and water currents
starting near the equator and followed them to the poles to
see how and where they would affect travelers. The value of
lines of latitude was appreciated when the effect of winds and
currents upon the ship was understood. The method of locat-
ing lines of latitude was worked out, first by finding the num-
ber of degrees in any circle, then in a semicircle, a quarter, etc.
This was done geometrically. The children also took up the
use of longitude in reckoning time. They made compasses
by magnetizing sewing needles and suspending them by silk
threads in a box on which the points were marked. The attrac-
tion of a magnet and the fact that like poles repel and opposite
attract were noted while working with the magnet.

Most of the children thought that when Prince Henry's men
landed anywhere in Africa they would meet with negroes and
were surprised to find that this was not the case, that the black
people were south of the point reached. Many difficulties were
met in passing the dangerous coast of Cape Mogador because
currents from both the north and the south meet here. It was
only because one captain was brave enough to venture far out
to sea where the water was more smooth that he was able to
pass the point. The others followed and thus the explorations
were continued.

An account of the capture of some of the natives followed.
The children's own ideas of what could be done with these
prisoners were elicited, as this was the beginning of slavery
and the slave trade. They were told of Prince Henry's desire
to make them Christians and how the children were often

i3o THE DEWEY SCHOOL

adopted, of the early attempt to teach the adults trades and
its failure because their ineptitude made them unfit for any but
the most laborious work. The children also noted what might
be expected in the way of trade with the natives. Certain
periods each week were given to special study of various forms
of communication and expression, in particular, that of writ-
ing the records of their journey or of collateral reading. This
"journal" was at first dictated to the teacher by the whole
class and agreement reached as to its form. The hard words
were put on the board where they could be found when needed,
and the children really enjoyed the writing and worked hard,
but without conscious effort. At one time, one or two could
not form certain letters, and when the piece of work was done,
time was spent in practice to attain better skill in the me-
chanics of writing. Parts of several periods were given to num-
ber work. This was concerned with reckoning the log-book
of their voyages and computing the total distance traveled in a
certain number of days. In this process individual problems
and tasks were discovered, as, for example, certain children of
the group could not add by threes up to thirty-six.

Much time was given to the making of individual relief
maps or to the sand-box picture of the physical features of the
country being discovered. Discussions were resumed as to why
Prince Henry's expedition did not get into the interior of
Africa. Two were emphasized— the lack of navigable rivers, and
the desire to pursue the discoveries by sea. Mountains were
picked out on a small paper relief map, and the effects of these
on the climate of this country along the coast was talked about.
Eventually the desert of Sahara was explained to the children's
satisfaction. As a good deal of experimentation was necessary
to explain the causes of climate and the various and character-
istic forms of life of the different zones, the science work of
this group took on the nature of an introduction to physi-
ography. To understand how heat affects climate, they investi-
gated, with the aid of a taper, the currents of air in the room.
They found the cold current from the windows sinking to the
floor and the warm air from the register rising to the ceiling.
From this they were led to see the effect of the heat of the sun's

EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY 131

rays In the equatorial zone in producing the trade-winds. They
first described the direction of these winds if the earth were
standing still, then the direction because of its revolutions.
With a thermometer, they found the temperature of water and
of sand in the room. They then heated the water and sand over
the same gas flame and noted that while the water soon had
the same temperature near the source of heat and at the sur-
face, there was a great difference in the sand, that at the bottom
becoming very hot and that at the top showing only a slight
change. From this experiment they drew inferences as to the
amount of heat absorbed by land and water and the ease with
which each would give up its heat and the resulting effect on
climate. The motions of the earth about the sun were discussed
in order to understand the changes of season and the contrasts
in climate which the explorers met. The points dwelt upon
here were the demonstration of centrifugal and centripetal
forces and the inclination of the earth's axis. A star was placed
on the blackboard on the north side of the room, a Bunsen
burner was used as the sun and a ball as the earth; and the
children were asked to show the rotary and revolutionary mo-
tions and to explain the effect on climate. The children drew
diagrams on paper to show these motions, and then watched
the Tellurian to see especially in different continents how far
north and how far south the sun was vertical and at what times
of year.

Trade beginnings between the Europeans and the Africans
were then taken up. Connection again was made with the fa-
miliar, past trading experiences of the Phoenician sailors and
its helpful results, and they were reminded of the glowing ac-
count of the riches of India brought back to Europe by the
survivors of the Crusades. The possible and probable routes
by land were worked out: that across the Suez and through
North Africa was studied in detail with special reference to
desert travel, A few pictures of deserts and camels helped out.
The group listened with interest to stories of Egypt and the
ancient monuments still to be seen. This was review to some,
but new to more than half the children. The fact that deserts
surrounded the valley of the Nile was pointed out as the reason

THE DEWEY SCHOOL

that the culture of the Egyptians had not spread among the
native Africans. The connection of Egypt with the story of
Moses and Joseph was reviewed. Space will not permit the con-
tinuation of this voyage, of the slow advance along the coast
until Diaz finally rounded the cape and made the discovery
of a route to India.

The children also followed Livingstone in his trip up the
Zambezi, read selected portions of his diary on the character of
the community and of the plant, animal, and human life. The
dramatic story of Stanley's search for Livingstone, their meet-
ing, and the illness and death of Livingstone, faithfully at-
tended to the end by his native attendants, concluded this bio-
graphical tale of exploration. Far away Africa grew real for
it also was the home of men. The study of the physical setting
—rivers, mountains, plains, the jungle and its plant and animal
inhabitants— took on human significance because of their rela-
tion to the journeys of a man. Livingstone's motives, springing
from desire to stop the slave traffic, to establish trade relations
with the natives, to extend Christianity, and to add to geo-
graphical knowledge, became the qualities that made him a
leader, a missionary of better ways to live, a discoverer of new
frontiers. These, together with his devotion and his zeal, stood
out concretely in his deeds of bravery and sacrifice. The spirit
of children of this age is in tune with adventure. They thrill
to its dangers; they understand something of the satisfying fer-
vor that attends heroic effort.

Records of their work were faithfully kept. For the most part
these were dictated, but a regular period was now set aside in
which each child wrote his own account of Prince Henry. Many
words were misspelled, even though they had been put on the
board and the children had been able to look at them when
writing. These were such words as world, because, boat, about,
built, etc. A new list of the words which gave trouble was again
placed on the board by children who volunteered. This was
corrected, and the whole list of twelve was dictated to them,
making the third time of writing. Even then, none of the chil-
dren got all right; two or three were unable to write a third
of them. In spite of the necessity of repeated effort, the children

EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY 133

showed a good deal of interest in writing and even volunteered
to take things home and copy or finish them. It may not be in-
appropriate to emphasize the importance of recording such
observations as these. They are the straws that indicated that
there is a time and a place for the practice of skills, a period
when such necessary drill is not distasteful to children, when
they see its logical necessity and crave facility of expression that
it gives.

THE STUDY OF COLUMBUS

With the beginning of the spring quarter the children of this
group began the story of Columbus* journeys, resulting in the
discovery of the American continent. The origin and motives
that actuated Prince Henry's discoveries were reviewed and
included the accomplishments of his undertaking. The chil-
dren were asked to suggest what led people to question the
idea that the world was flat. To the reasons they gave was
added the discovery of the reason for an eclipse of the moon.
The nature of this was made plain with object and globe. All
the children seemed to know that the earth goes around the
sun, but very few knew of the revolution of the moon.

Where and how Columbus lived as a boy and something of
the geography of Genoa was studied. The nature and names
of land forms, such as a peninsula and isthmus, a harbor and a
cape, were discussed and were added to the children's vocabu-
lary. The children mentioned what they thought would be of
most interest to a boy who lived in the town of Genoa in those
days. They compared his liking for the wharves and sailors to
that of Robinson Crusoe.6 They told their ideas of what he
would learn at school, talked a little of why he learned Latin,

e The collateral reading matter for some time had been the story of
Robinson Crusoe. "Only two of the children in this group have difficulty
in reading— one who cannot read at all, and one who is gaining, but very
slowly. In writing, the same two children have difficulty. When this work
was done from 11:30-12, they were often almost incapable of doing any
thinking. When this fatigue was general and pronounced, the daily lesson
in reading or writing was put aside, and a story was read to them. This
rested them and had an additional value of reenabling the children to
think and feel as a group in a constructive way.'*

134 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

and whether he would be likely to follow his father's trade,
that of a wool comber. Some of the new children had had no
experience with the processes of preparing wool. This was care-
fully explained to them by the other children. The first sea
voyage Columbus made at the age of fourteen was taken up,
and the limited geographical knowledge of this time was de-
scribed. They recalled that Prince Henry's explorers had gone
far down the African coast the year th^t Prince Henry had
died and, from the base of this familiar fact, were able to sur-
mise that the early -voyage of Columbus was probably only in
the Mediterranean. They learned of his interest in navigation,
of his careful collecting of books and charts, of his study, of
his inheritance of the maps and papers from his wife's father
who was a captain under Prince Henry, and of his final deter-
mination to seek means to prove that the world could be cir-
cumnavigated. This was supplemented by further detailed
study of Columbus' birthplace.7

The children named the countries whose people might have
been seen at Genoa in Columbus' time. This number was com-
pared with that possible to be seen by the children in Chicago.
Chicago was compared with Genoa as a town to which ships
come, and the differences of present experience from that of
Columbus' day were noted. The children were told that Co-
lumbus thought the world was 14,000 miles around, but that
it is really 25,000. They were asked to find out how much
greater it is than Columbus thought it was. They also deter-
mined how long it would take to go around it if one could go
at the rate of 5,000 miles a day, and at other rates. H. volun-
teered that he knew "the earth is 8,000 miles through from
Alice in Wonderland." The children were asked, "If you knew
the distance of the circumference, how could you find the dis-
tance through the earth?" Several of the children thought it
would be half the distance round and measured it to find their
error. They then measured different circles to get an idea of
the relation of the diameter to the circumference. None of them
seemed able to make the generalization, but apparently under-

7 A present study of Columbus might find some of this material labeled
apocryphal.

EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY 135

stood the ratio when it was given them. A certain amount of
time was given each week to writing a record of Columbus
for their books.8 The facts which appealed to them as worth
recording were those which were, to some extent, either within
their experience or were of a sensational character. In the story
of the boyhood of Columbus, all the children remembered that
on one occasion he was sent on an errand and stayed all day,
playing on the wharves. The places he would probably visit
in his first trip around the Mediterranean had little interest,
but the statement that once in a fight with a pirate vessel, both
ships caught on fire and Columbus sprang overboard with an
oar and swam six miles to shore was remembered and thought
important enough to be recorded.

It took some time for the children to realize what a long and
difficult task it was for Columbus to secure the help he needed.
These children had an idea in common with many adults that
Columbus merely presented his case to the queen, and she
pledged her jewels to have the plan carried out. In order that
they might realize the real difficulty in getting support for a
new idea, emphasis was laid upon his repeated attempts, at
the court of the King of Portugal, at Genoa, and for seven long
years in Spain, all of which took fourteen years of his life. This
elicited from the children expressions of great sympathy. They
then tried to imagine in what form help could come. Perhaps
some of the money came direct from the King and Queen, and
two of the ships were levied from a town.

The group followed Columbus' first voyage in some detail.
An account of the departure was read to them, and the general
direction they took through the Sargasso Sea was followed on
the map. The story included the discontent of the sailors, their
alarm at finding that the wind blew constantly from the east
and in the belt of the trade. They learned of Columbus' fear
lest they might be missing Japan by sailing too far north and

s These books were started the previous fall and contained their records
of the voyages of Prince Henry of Portugal and of Livingstone. They were
in printed form. The printing was done by older groups on the school press.
The fact that their own story of Columbus was to be included in this book
added incentive to the keeping of the record. It also helped to keep up
the needed emphasis on writing during the quarter.

136 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

the consequent shifting of their course to the southwest, which
took them among the Bahamas instead of to Florida. The chil-
dren gained some idea of how the speed of a vessel was esti-
mated in knots, and how Columbus himself always took the
speed on this voyage to let the sailors think they had come
less far than was really the case. Otherwise they would have
become discouraged and insisted upon an immediate return.
On reading that they "shifted two points to the starboard/* one
of the children who had been on a sailing vessel drew a sort
of diagram on the board to show the others what was meant.
The map was followed very closely in this voyage, both on one
such as Columbus was supposed to have had and also on a mod-
ern map. The children made out the direction Columbus was
sailing at every step up to his landing at one of the Bahamas
and later to Cuba and along its coast. This was charted from
day to day from observations of latitude and longitude.

His return landing near Lisbon, in Portugal, because of the
severity of the storm was related, and the children suggested
that he would send a messenger to the King of Spain telling
him of his arrival. The route was traced by which Columbus
would then go to Palos where he had started, and up to the
King at Barcelona. Bayonne was found where Captain Pinzon
landed with the Pinta. The children were told of this captain's
feeling that Columbus was lost and of his attempt to take to
himself the glory of the new discoveries and of his message
concerning this to the King. In order to see how the moral side
of this action appeared to the children, they were asked what
they thought Pinzon would do when he landed. They suggested
that he would send a message to the King telling him that he
had returned and that Columbus was lost. When told of his
real action, they considered it "mean." Some suggested heavy
punishments, some light because he had been of service in the
beginning. A description of the reception given Columbus by
the King was then read to them from The Makers of America.

The course continued with the study of Columbus' second
voyage. At a suggestion the children proposed writing and
staging a play of Columbus' life. This meant an unpremedi-
tated (by them) and systematic review of the work done. A

EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY 137

bright interest lit up the old material and gave a new motive
for a fresh attack. Under this renewed inspiration it was pos-
sible to correct many false impressions and to emphasize with-
out undue effort the attainment of necessary skills in the con-
struction of many types of the communicative and expressive
arts. It also did much to help the children review and evaluate
the significant events of Columbus' life and of that period of
history.

The latter weeks of the quarter and of the year were spent
on the story of Balboa. The series was finally rounded out by
the voyage of Magellan. As a start for this, the children sur-
mised a way for his voyage to the Pacific, of which he had heard
from Balboa. They suggested that he would look for a water-
way through the land which he had found. Some of them
thought this would be a river, and discussed whether the way
between two oceans would be fresh water or salt. They were
told of the discovery of the Straits and of Magellan's determina-
tion, when he found himself in the Pacific, to circumnavigate
the globe. The children from previous study knew that he must
expect to meet air and water currents near the equator, and
that the calm would have to be endured. They were told of the
distress from the lack of food and water that did occur and of
the arrival at the Philippines where Magellan was killed. They
were reminded at this point of Prince Henry of Portugal's ex-
plorations, that he had gone around Africa and found India
and that the Portuguese were, in Magellan's time, engaged in
making settlements on the coast of India. The Edict of the
Pope at that time, was also recalled, by which he divided the
world giving the east half to Portugal and the west to Spain.
The story was continued until finally the home-seeking ships
rounded Africa and returned to Spain, and made the exciting
discovery that a day in time had been lost. The last period was
spent in talking over what they had studied during the year
and in a character comparison of the men.

The group teacher9 at the close of the year's record com-
ments as follows:

& Laura L. Runyon.

ij8 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

The different spirit of the two sections, a and b of this group has
been interesting, a was made up of children of such decided person-
ality that the spirit of the group was conflicting and critical. The
only time when a semblance of cooperative spirit ruled was in play.
In group b, on the other hand, a congenial spirit ruled with the
result that they progressed faster and accomplished far more than
Section a. I have been impressed with the way in which the adventur-
ous spirit has grown in this class during the year. They seem to have
gained a vivid image of sea conditions, of tropical lands and natives,
of possible adventures on sea and land, and an awakened interest
in recognizing differences between what they know of their own
environs and the new images resulting from the imaginative study of
going out by sea into different climates and conditions

When they take up a new country, it might be of value for the
children to taste the native fruits and products and attempt the
manufacture of certain products, such as the making of rubber from
the caoutchouc, or chocolate from the cocoa bean. This would make
the work more permanent and valuable; would serve to keep in mind
the true motive of most explorers, die wealth to be acquired for an
individual or a country; would help to a better understanding of the
contact between the civilized and uncivilized, and the results of that
contact; and would give a meaning to the search for short land water-
ways in and through a country. It would also seem a wise plan an-
other year, that early in the fall the children be sent, in school time,
singly or in twos, on short exploring trips, and be required to re-
port on , their discoveries. The report should include a map of
directions as well as the things seen.

From the point of view of getting a rational idea of the explorers
and their aims, the work of this year has been very satisfactory. The
children seem to have a fairly correct idea of what made Columbus
and the other explorers great, and on the other hand, to recognize
that some of their deeds were not commendable. They also seem able
to contrast their own times with those of the men they study, and
also to compare different countries.

CORRELATED ACTIVITIES

A hasty reading of this account of the activities of Group V ;
in its historical story form may give an impression of a very aca-
demic school. The balance of this group's work was so ar-
ranged, however, that there was plenty of time for activities
which engaged the whole body as well as minds and hands, eyes
and ears. The children were on the playground and excur-
sions, in the art and textile studios, in the kitchen-laboratory,

EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY 139

in assembly with the rest of the children, back and forth in a
round of natural and highly correlated social living.

As heretofore, the number work was largely incidental to
the carpentry, cooking, sewing, and science. The children for-
mulated their own problems involving multiplication and sub-
traction, or measurement of surfaces. The reading and writing
was, for the most part, of their own records. In art, the subjects
for representation were those of their history, done on the
sand-table, in clay, colored chalk, charcoal, and water-color.
The scenes and backdrops for their play, especially the Co-
lumbus drama, were done by the children. The aim was self-
expression and more skill in visual observation.

In their music the children were given note-books with lines
for writing music, and began this year to make copies of the
songs they had composed. The key in which the song was to
be written was determined from the piano, then the time was
noted from what is called the "strong pulses" and was indi-
cated by putting a bar before each in writing the notes. Last of
all, the stems of the notes were marked, designating the time
assigned to each. In the shop work also, emphasis was placed
on getting the child's idea constructed and comparatively little
was placed upon technique or finish. Instruction was given in
the first principles of machines and in handling the materials
such as lumber, reeds, cane, or bamboo, and in making the
articles necessary to illustrate their history or for use in their
experimental work. Cooking, as always fitted into the program
of the weekly luncheon, and emphasizing an experimental
study of the proteins of eggs, meat, or milk.

SUMMARY

Certain educational implications of both the subject-matter
and method of the study of this year seem worthy of emphasis.
The conditions for learning, and, therefore, for thinking, were
well set up. For each child of the group the whole experience
was inherently personal enough to stimulate and direct his ob-
servation to the connections involved. It led him to inference
and then to its testing. As he followed his chosen explorer in

I4o THE DEWEY SCHOOL

the various laps of his voyage, when problems arose, the child
was stimulated to forecast possible results—things to do. This,
entailed some inventiveness, for he must jump in thought from
the known to the unknown, from the old to the new. Such
imaginative forecasting was for that child creative thinking. It
had the quality of original research. It fulfilled the essentials,
of true reflection. These essentials are also those of scientific
method in all research whether of the kindergarten or of the
scientific laboratory.10 "They are first, that the pupil (or re-
search worker) have a genuine situation of experience— that
there be a continuous activity in which he is interested for its
own sake; secondly, that a genuine problem develop within this
situation as a stimulus to thought; third, that he possess the in-
formation and make the observations needed to deal with it;
fourth, that suggested solutions occur to him which he shall be
responsible for developing in an orderly way; fifth, that he have
opportunity and occasion to test his ideas by application, to>
make their meaning clear, and to discover for himself their va-
lidity!"

10 John Dewey, Democracy and Education (New York, The Macmillaa
Co., 1916), p. 192.

CHAPTER VIII

L O GAL HISTORY

GROUP vi (AGE NINE)

LWO years of experimentation with the school's curriculum
demonstrated that there are dominant interests and attitudes
Tvhich characterize definite stages in a child's development.
These stages are not sharply defined. There are periods of tran-
sition when one merges into the next. The first of these stages
is one in which children are largely occupied with direct social
and outgoing kinds of action, with a progressive increase in
the complexity of work undertaken and responsibilities as-
sumed. At about eight years of age they are ready for and feel
the need of getting skill in the use of tools and knowledge of
the rules and techniques of work. While the children in Group
V exhibited many of these characteristics of the second stage of
growth, the year was markedly one of transition. By the time
they entered Group VI, however, they were well launched into
the second stage.

Some of the important theoretical statements lying behind
the work of the school were developed through faculty discus-
sions of the practices of these two groups. In the first stage of
growth there is always motor activity, and there is always a
-story, a drama, an image— a mental whole. But the two are not
separate from each other. Acts are not, to the child's conscious-
ness, means for realizing ideas; they are just spontaneous over-
flow and exhibition. The child's thoughts are not something to
be realized; they are the living meaning and value that saturate
whatever he does. Hence this is called the play period. The
activities of the first four years of the school were based upon
the working theory that the child's attitude is predominantly

141

14* THE DEWEY SCHOOL

of this sort and that it is premature to force upon him work
where there is a separation of means and ends in psychological
essence, a divorce of elements, steps and acts from the idea for
which they exist. This theory accounts for the relatively slight
and incidental attention given to reading, writing, and numbers
in the sixth and seventh years and for the attempt to introduce
geography and science in a synthetic and living rather than
an analytic and morphological way. It was not supposed that
conscious relating of means and ends is wholly absent in this
period or that in school work there is no need of anticipating
the next stage of growth. Even with six-year-old children, con-
sciousness of somewhat remote ends begins, and there is in-
terest in regulating behavior so as to reach results. The change
to one of conscious direction of action comes easily and hence
earlier in activities with a tangible result, such as making a
box to use or cooking cereal for lunch. This working hypothesis
of the school by no means blocks out the possibility of greater
use of symbols in what might be called free reading and writing
during the sixth and seventh years in the form of labels, proper
names, and brief records of work, when such efforts by the
child do not divert his energies from the more fundamental
activities involving the larger muscles. There will always be
individual children ahead or behind chronological age, but
readiness to read must be determined by the psychological at-
titude described above, namely, a willingness to work out
means for deferred ends. A child who has reached this stage
of mental development will see in learning to read, write or
figure, means that will often help him reach his desired ends
more quickly and efficiently. Too much emphasis cannot be
laid upon the fact that undue premium is put upon the ability
to learn to read at a certain chronological age. The child who
cannot read at seven or eight is considered retarded. The fun-
damental wrong done young children by the large classes in
the public schools has of necessity given rise to endless series
of "readers," so-called work books, which are supposed to di-
rect activity on the part of the child. The entertainment plus
information motive for reading conduces much to the habit of
solitary self-entertainment which ends too often in day-dream-

LOCAL HISTORY 143

ing instead of guided creative activities, controlled by objective
success or failure.

In the Dewey School the active and constructive -work for
children of six and seven held an immediate appeal as an out-
let for energy. It also led on in orderly fashion to the next
undertaking and enabled the child to form a habit of working
for ends and a method of controlling present activities by a
sequence of steps so that they grew into larger ideas and plans.
This method of thinking and acting was gradually transferred to
the accomplishment of ends more consciously conceived and
more remote. In the eighth year, or that of Group V, such
transfer was marked. By the ninth, the average child showed
an evident dislike of attempting to reach results for which he
felt the means at his command were inadequate. For example,
he objected to the kind of drawings he had made formerly
with delight, apparently because he was beginning to see them
as results which appeared crude and even absurd.

From observation and discussion of the early work, three
fundamental working principles were formulated. First, growth
is gradual; it comes in reading before in writing, and in both
before in numbers. This does not mean that the child may not
have used numbers with great interest, as distinct from ana-
lyzing them and learning the rules for their use. Growth in
the use of science comes even after that in numbers. Children
of eight or nine were found to be interested in experimental
work in science, but not because they conceived a certain prob-
lem and regarded the experiment as a way of solving it. They
took hold of experimentation as they did of constructive work;
it was the active performance of a series of steps; and it was
"seeing what happens" that occupied their minds. Second, at
the psychological level of six and seven years, children are not
yet ready for analysis, for attention to forms and symbols, since
interest in technique demands a background of experience. A
stretch of positive subject-matter must come first, enlarging and
deepening the child's world of imagination and thought until
he gradually becomes ready to analyze an experience he has
not yet had, to learn rules that have no immediate outlet in
action and whose appeal is remote and imaginary. Third, the

144 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

introduction to technique must come in connection with ends
that arise within the child's own experience, real or imagined.
It is not enough for the teacher to see the end. The prime psy-
chological necessity is that the child see and feel the end as his
end, the need as his need, and thus have an inherent and im-
pelling motive from within for making the analysis and master-
ing the rules of procedure. The faculty of the school found that
these principles could be put into effect only as the formal
work was in connection with active, constructive, or expressive
activity 'presenting difficulties and the need of meeting them.
The technical exercises were selected from such material. Ad-
ditional concrete material or occupation supplied opportuni-
ties for using the newly acquired power and realizing its value,
and the spiral course of the circuit of experience rounded the
next ascending curve.

SETTING OF GROUP

Group VI, the nine-year-old children, was divided into two
sections on the basis of their previous experience in school.
Their headquarters were in a rather inadequate room, but
their study of local history and physiography took them into
the laboratory of the outdoors. In fact, with this group and
those above it, the home room and the group teacher assumed
less and less importance because of the growing physical and
mental independence of the children. The children were un-
der the direction of one of the history teachers and her assist-
ant.1 In order to secure more time for practice in reading and
writing, the school day was lengthened to include an hour in
the afternoon. The year was characterized by the children's
growing ability in control and self-direction. They often asked
for extra work to do at home, and when they showed a desire
to carry on a piece of work alone, they were allowed to carry
it to completion independently.

The study of the great explorers and world discoverers the
previous year served as a transition in the story of social life

i Laura Runyon, Margaret Hoblitt.

LOCAL HISTORY 145

to the settlement of local adventurers and pioneers. The starting
point for the study grew out of discussion. As was customary
in their first meetings, the general possibilities for study the
coming year were talked over. Thoughts naturally reverted to
last year's work, and a quick review was made. The adventures
of Phoenician sailors and traders, of the explorations of Marco
Polo, Prince Henry, Balboa, Magellan, Captain Cooke, Drake,
Nansen, Livingstone, or others who had become familiar fig-
ures to the group were passed in rapid review. At the close,
emphasis was laid on the English, the Spanish, and French
settlements in America. The motives which led to all explora-
tion were discussed. Love of adventure, the lure of El Dorado,
and in some cases freedom from oppression were mentioned.
Of all these the children decided that the search for a short
way to India and her riches was the most powerful.

THE STUDY OF LOCAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY

The group decided they would like to know more about the
United States and how it began, and finally agreed that the
place where they lived would be a good place to start, that they
would like to know how the Chicago they knew had come to
be. This had been the teacher's objective; but because it was
obtained by means of a group process, the children regarded
the plan as their own. Local museums and historic spots were
at hand and easy of access. They could even talk with persons
whose memories still held something of the fact and flavor of
early days. In such a study definite activities of a particular
people would be prominent and could be developed according
to the children's power to deal with limited and positive fact.
In the study, also, they would use what they had thus far gained
in understanding of the origins of occupations and the begin-
nings of social organization outside the family group. From
the teacher's point of view, the problem was to introduce the
children to new situations requiring constructive action and
then help them to analyze, plan, and forecast the various steps
which might be taken in working out the problem. In other
words it was hoped that when confronted with the new situa-

146 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

tions of early American frontier life, the children would be
interested and stimulated to size them up, calculate the re-
sources of the settlers, and from time to time reformulate the
probable solutions and the courses of action taken.2

Local history and geography, therefore, in this year were
begun with the study of the Northwest and especially of Chi-
cago. This was considered in three stages: (i) the period of the
French explorations, (2) Fort Dearborn and the log-cabin age,
(3) development of the city of Chicago. In general, for this
course in localized history the choice of a locality would be
determined by the local environment and experience of both
teacher and the group. In this school other experiments than
this were made. One group studied Roman history. This was
not altogether successful, as it seemed too remote from the
present interests and aims of social life. It presented too many
abstract problems of a political nature which a child of this
age is not interested in and with which he is unable to cope
until a later period.

THE PERIOD OF FRENCH EXPLORATION

In the first period the children were told stories of the lives
of Marquette and Joliet, La Salle and Tonty, with the reasons
and aims which led them into the west, and their routes of
travel were traced on maps.

The related geography was the finding of the great lines of
travel from the Atlantic through the St. Lawrence and the
Great Lakes to the Mississippi and the determination of where
forts should be located. In all cases the class first found where
the man went and then the later names of the rivers and towns
with which he was connected. The antagonism between the
English and the French, and the territory claimed by each were

2 "Knowledge of the past is the key to understanding the present. History
deals with the past, but this past is the history of the present. An intelligent
study of the discovery, explorations, colonization of America, of the pioneer
movement westward, of immigration, etc. should be a study of the United
States as it is today: of the country we now live in." John Dewey, Democracy
and Education (New York, The Maonillan Co., 1916), p. 251.

LOCAL HISTORY 147

explained. The way was then sought by which the French
would enter unprotected territory, and the points where con-
flicts would arise. The hostility between the Iroquois Indians
and the French, the locality of the Five Nations, and the di-
minished fur trade of the east helped to make plain the route
the French fur traders must take to reach the Indians of the
western lands. With the occupation of new territory went the
necessity for forts. The location of these at points command-
ing entrances of rivers and portages of the heads of lakes was
noted, and the reasons given. Politically, these were strategic
points of vantage from which to carry out La Salle's desire to
found a new France; commercially, they held the same advan-
tage as points for reaching the fur trade of the West. Father
Marquette typified the religious zeal of the times, so that it
was possible for the children gradually to become conscious of
the various motives which lie back of all exploration and prog-
ress.

Beginning with the boyhood of Marquette, as a typical mis-
sionary of that period, the general trend of the French explora-
tions in Canada and the Lake regions was traced by means of
incidents in his life. The story of the part the fur trader Joliet
played, as an explorer, in opening up the West then followed.
That of La Salle and Tonty and their various journeys were
sketched more briefly.

The records note that there was little freedom of language
in the group, but as the work continued, the children developed
a great interest in reading and writing, asking to have all new
words and important names put on the blackboard to copy.
They began to suggest of their own accord the available sources
for looking up additional material and spent much time volun-
tarily finding the meaning and pronunciation of Indian names.
It became a pleasurable game to have new and difficult words
used- in conversation or reading aloud, put upon the board.
This growing conscious demand for something hard, something
which would last and call out power, efficiency in selection and
adaptation of means to end, was a frequently noted character-
istic of this age.

148 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

FORT DEARBORN AND THE LOG-CABIN AGE

In trying to discover why Fort Dearborn was built, Group
Vl-b had followed with intense interest the story of the George
Rogers Clark expedition. At first they could not understand
why Clark should think it worth while to make so long and
dangerous a journey. They were reminded that the capture of
a few forts meant the accession of a large tract of valuable land.
One child suggested that perhaps Clark saw it would be more
easily won when few people lived there than when it was
thickly settled. The return of a pupil who had been absent
through the most interesting part of the work was made the
occasion for a review. This the children seemed to enjoy more
than their first study. There was scarcely a detail which they
were not able and eager to tell. They took particular pleasure
in relating what a hard time Clark had to take Vincennes and
how it actually was accomplished through the persuasion of
some friendly Frenchmen without the firing of a gun. After fin-
ishing the story of Clark they were anxious to write their own
story of the expedition on the blackboard.3 Each child tried this
experiment by himself, the teacher aiding with the spelling. The
difficulties of composition became very great, however, and some
of those who had been most eager found that they had little
to say. As time went on, each week there were two periods of
drill in reading and writing. In one the children did individual
work; those who were able read by themselves; others wrote
sentences from their history on the blackboard; and one child
who was behind the rest had the teacher's special attention.
The second period was given to blackboard drill in word build-
ing by the entire group. On the whole their ambition outran
their power of accomplishment to such an extent that it was
difficult to hold their interest in the writing.

s Careful planning was necessary on the part of the teacher in order
that the desire of the children to express themselves in writing should not
be unduly checked by their lack of skill. When, in her judgment, interest
flagged to the point of failure, she usually stepped in with a proposal that
she write at their dictation, or in some other way diverted their effort into
•channels affording a flow more in accord with their desires.

LOCAL HISTORY 149

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHICAGO

The beginnings of localized history, such as that of Chicago,
have since been so well worked out in so many places that many
phases of this year's work have been omitted, and only those
which show how the continuity of the story was maintained
are kept. Much time was spent in discussion of the reasons for
the choice of the site of Chicago, on its importance as a strate-
gic point in the fur trade as well as the natural meeting place
for the North and the South, the East and the West. Its im-
portance politically was brought out by locating the territory
of the English who now held Canada, and that of the Spanish,
who for a time were holding the west bank of the Mississippi.

During all this detailed study, much time was spent in read-
ing from Stories of Illinois. The children were delighted to
have a book which they could use by themselves. Several read
a good deal at home. This particular book proved a great spur
to one child who had been discouraged over his reading and
up to this point had insisted that he knew he could not read
and did not care to have a book.

A large map of Fort Dearborn had been made by the group,
and the interest of the children carried over into the making
of small individual maps of the Fort and the surrounding re-
gion with which, from constant reference to their book maps,
they had become tolerably familiar. One section of the group
was much more interested in the map drawing than the other;
nearly all were dissatisfied with their first attempt and wished
to make a second map. Some volunteered to work on them at
home. One period was spent in making an outline of the work
of the quarter. This was done by asking the children to suggest
the titles for a series of stories on the history of Chicago. By
this means a sequential statement of topics was secured rather
than the disconnected details which children are prone to offer
in such a review.

In a subsequent year, the early settlement of Chicago was
given over to a trained science teacher * who abridged the dis-

* Harry O. Gillett.

i5o THE DEWEY SCHOOL

covery period and introduced other stories of explorers, which
brought out the actual geography of the Lake region. This was
worked out in a detailed sand-map, by assigning a lake and the
adjoining country, or a river and its basis to each child. Nat-
ural competition, as well as interest in each other's work, gave
the children a much better conception of the relation of dif-
ferent parts of a lake system to each other and of the kind of
country bordering on each lake or river, than if they had
worked in rotation upon different parts of the country. In the
construction of these lakes the teacher discovered many er-
roneous notions of geography, such as the general idea of a
lake as an immense, slow river. They thought the water ought
to flow right through the lake and only gradually worked out
the notion of a basin holding a large amount of water only a
small portion of which, relatively speaking, flows quietly into
the next lake at its outlet. The idea of the great importance of
the animal life in early times was already theirs, so very little
emphasis was put upon the dependence of the pioneers on this
source of supply. It was necessary, however, to spend time
in developing the idea that the Illinois Indians possessed a
great asset in their fertile fields of Indian corn and to bring out
the practical point that the two industries of greatest extent
and value for the early settlements were farming and fur trad-
ing.

The study of the past was finally linked to the present by a
discussion of the formation of village government when a char-
ter was granted by the state. The children formulated the vari-
ous functions of such a city government. They then took up
those things which were left to individual initiative and were
surprised to find that' they far exceeded the others in number.
In connection with the organization of the waterworks, they
recalled what they had studied about the sources of water and
the means of conveying it. Most of them understood the rela-
tion of the cribs and the pumping-stations to the present water-
supply, but only one or two were able to suggest ways of pump-
ing water with such simple materials as a hollow tube and
leather for a piston. The principle of a pump was connected
directly with the action of water in the siphons which they used

LOCAL HISTORY 151

to carry water to and from their sand-table lake and river. Al-
though they seemed at the time to understand the theory of
the working of a siphon, it was not until the end of the half
year that they were able successfully to fill and operate a rub-
ber tube as a siphon.5

One year much of the time for construction work was spent
in the building of a model of Fort Dearborn. This gave in-
terest and incentive for the development of skills, in the han-
dling of tools and the use and manipulation of numbers, but
proved lacking in movement and too difficult an undertaking
for this age. In another year the village of Chicago and its en-
virons were constructed in sand. The first stage-coach route,
organized after the completion of the river-bridge, was incor-
porated. Along this first road the children saw the beginnings
of the trade in cattle, wheat, and other food staples, which have
since made Chicago a commercial center. In the construction
of the sand-map of this locality such points as the formaLon
of a sand-bar at the mouth of the river were made clear. The
extreme flatness of the country around Chicago brought out
the explanation that the locality is the original bottom of an
old lake which had its outlet into the Mississippi through the
Des Plaines river, and that the portage over which the early
explorers dragged their canoes was a part of the divide upon
one side of which water flowed through the Lakes into the
St. Lawrence River and the Atlantic Ocean, and on the other
side down the Des Plaines and the Illinois Rivers into the Mis-
sissippi and the Gulf of Mexico.6 This work demonstrated to

5 This seems to reenforce the theoretical statement that children of this
age are not yet able to apply easily any large generalization or abstraction.

6 "The reason for the placing of any settlement on the Chicago river at
all was developed over and over again without seeming to have much mean-
ing to this group of children, whereas another class had found no difficulty
in seeing the logical conclusion. The former group seemed to show less
power to invent or reconstruct probable situations or events; and imagina-
tively to continue a story beyond the point to which discussion had pro-
ceeded. They possessed, however, in contrast with the other group, much
more skill in written expression and, with the exception of one or two
individuals, could, without much effort, rewrite in story-form any interest-
ing part of the actual narrative." Report of Group VI, 1902-1903, Harry O.
Gillett.

152 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

the children the strategic position that Chicago held geograph-
ically, and they were easily helped to suggest a canal to connect
the Chicago River along the old portage with the Des Plaines.
They also suggested ways in which the canal might be paid for,
prophesied the boom that would result from the demand for
cheap land in so promising a place and, with knowledge of
what had happened, anticipated the collapse that would fol-
low the boom. In this the facts learned were regarded merely
as the means for the development of correct judgment.

The importance of Chicago as a commercial center was
viewed from the side of geology by reading and discussing an
article in a current magazine. This was made the starting point
for a somewhat different treatment of the study of geography.
Up to this time this subject had been considered as incidental
and in close connection with the relation of people to a local-
ity. Following the parallel of latitude of Chicago, around the
world, the children located and named all the lands through
which this parallel passed. The zones were then considered in
their relative position to the sun, and the countries in each
zone were learned. In this way they became familiar with the
names of the continents, their relative sizes, climates, and the
oceans separating them.

CORRELATED ACTIVITIES

The question of the means of transportation and of repre-
senting it on the sand-map routes led one group to the con-
struction of a typical prairie schooner such as brought the fam-
ilies of the east to Chicago. The work in the textile room re-
ceived many incentives from this study. The development of
the loom and weaving was studied. Each group worked out
special problems such as finding a way to stretch the warp
strings for regular weaving. One of the children invented a
heddle although he had never seen one, nor so far as could be
discovered, the picture of one. The sewing, like the shop work,
was to supply school needs in the kitchen or sewing room.

Because of lack of space and opportunities, little of the ex-
perimentation along the line of pioneer industries which had

LOCAL HISTORY 153

been planned was carried out. A number of experiments in
constructing the kinds of ovens used in early days proved suc-
cessful in holding the children's interest and carried over into
an understanding of the various principles of draft, choice of
material, etc. in the modern furnace and fireplace.

The character of the plant and animal life found by the ex-
plorers in the Lake region was constantly emphasized. Almost
all the children possessed a large amount of information as to
what animals live now or have lived in this region. They knew
something of their habits, much more of the uses of their skins,
and although a sensational account of fierceness, courage, or
the reverse was always told first, an account of the animal and
its habits soon followed. The beaver was chosen as an animal
for special study because of its importance in the fur trade. The
children made a list of all animals belonging to the beaver
family and decided that the common characteristic of all was
the habit of gnawing. The teeth were examined and their
chisel shape noted. The use of the tail was discussed, whether
as a trowel in plastering the dam, or as a rudder.

Part of the time given to cooking during this year was spent
each week on experimentation with the particular food pre-
pared for the class luncheon. The children investigated the na-
ture of the plant material, both as to its use to the plant and
its use for food. This, in the course of the year's work, brought
out the functions of roots, stems, and leaves, and the forms in
which the plant stored its reserve material, starch, oils, and
albumen. The children were given the ordinary tests for starch
and for oils. Albumen they identified as something similar to
the gluten which they had extracted from wheat. The character
and uses of the acid and mineral salts in certain foods were not
dealt with experimentally, as the points involved were too
difficult for them to grasp.

The program was rounded out by opportunity for expres-
sion or representation of ideas in finer forms of activity. The
subject-matter sprang out of and was in line with the main idea
of the course and took on the color of its general atmosphere.
The music was a further study of harmony practice in its rec-
ognition and in composition, and the expression of ideas of

i54 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

harmonic phrases. In art, some of the best work of the school
grew out of the group's visit to the monument in memory of
the Fort Dearborn Massacre. Three children posed as the fig-
ures of Mrs. Helm, her Indian assailant, and Black Partridge,
the rescuer. Each member of the class also chose a subject from
the life of Marquette to do in clay, which was cast in plaster
and hung on the studio walls.

The records give evidence of a growing recognition by these
children of the possibility and the desirability of obtaining
more permanent and objective results than had heretofore
satisfied them. Each child had also begun to realize that skill
in control of means was necessary to achieve desired ends. The
previous vague and fluid unity of his life, when mere play
satisfied, was broken up.

Subject-matter was chosen to meet and satisfy the needs and
demands of this developing attitude. From an historical point
of view it also differentiated the more vague and fluid unity of
the race life into typical phases, when individuals and groups
of men and women, actuated by various motives, met, con-
quered, and controlled the specific conditions of frontier life.
The child followed in deed and fancy these actual accomplish-
ments of mankind and realized the importance of a command
of method and of skills in thought and action. The problem
for the teacher was to use selected subject-matter so as to help
each child recognize his own needs and secure practical skill
and intellectual control of methods of work and inquiry which
would enable him to realize results and make contributions to
the group. In this way learning and increasing ability were by-
products of purposeful, helpful, and self-directed activity. As
these particular children felt the need of a better method and
more skill in picturing the routes their adventurers traveled,
they were given a cursory but helpful study of two or more
types of map projection which involved the use of numbers
and the tools of measurement. The need for accuracy in navi-
gation was easily understood, and the children were helped to
think out an appropriate method to use in making a dead-
reckoning. Their rather unusual ability to do this was without
doubt due to their unusually varied experience. Again and

LOCAL HISTORY 155

again it was found that, at this age of development, children are
not only willing but anxious to attain facility in writing and
number work, in order to carry on a project to a desired con-
clusion.

They began also to be somewhat self-conscious in art and
found free expression most easily in modeling where the ma-
terial lent itself with fascinating ease to the formulation of an
idea. The bas-reliefs of scenes from the life of Marquette were
produced by this group. Comments in the records reveal what
are perhaps general characteristics of this stage— a tendency to
attack big enterprises without sufficient planning and to drop
quickly before completion something which proved more dif-
ficult than expected. Increasing ability to abstract and to for-
mulate processes made the children impatient of very detailed
experimentation, and yet they found such detailed work as
printing exceedingly satisfactory.

The additional afternoon hour gave more time, approxi-
mately two hours a week, for studying technique in reading,
writing, and number work. In the latter the method of a proc-
ess was worked out, and the rule formulated and used in prac-
tice until familiarity gave ease in performance. The balance of
added time was given to experimental problems in science,
either springing out of or related to cooking or history. These
nine-year-old children also spent more time in listening to
reading, due to the addition of literature as a separate subject
with a special teacher. The English, or literature, had two
forms. In one, emphasis was on esthetic appreciation of stories
and poems; in the other, help was given in oral expression.
German or French was also introduced.

The study of the settlement of the Northwest and of Chicago
occupied half of the school year. In discussing the work of the
second half year the same group was easily led to feel that a
next logical step would be to study the settlement of part of
the United States that was unfamiliar to them. A brief review
was made of Columbus and other explorers, and the story of
the first settlement of white people in America was sketched.
The English claim to North America and the story of the papal
decree which for a time had compelled England to keep her

156 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

hands off the continent were retold. The children were then
asked to suggest probable motives for American colonization.
The desire to find gold was the only reason first suggested, but
when the old-time search for a northwest passage was recalled
the children thought it probable that this would be an addi-
tional argument for settling in America. They were reminded
of the hostile relations of England and Spain and of the Span-
ish trade in America, and they saw that it would be a great
advantage for England to have a hold in the new country. One
child also suggested that perhaps England had not land enough
at home and wanted more. When told of the economic condi-
tions in England due to the growth of the wool industry, they
concluded that the farmers driven out of their farms in Eng-
land ought to come to America and have farms of their own
for sheep raising.

THE STUDY OF VIRGINIA

Raleigh's efforts at colonization were taken up.7 On con-
cluding them, the children decided that the best plan for such
future attempts would be the formation of a company to fur-
nish the money. The East India and the Muscovy Companies
were touched on in this connection. The children were greatly
interested in Captain Barlowe's account of his exploration of
the coast of Virginia. In their opinion the best argument for
colonization was the opportunity for new homes in this fruit-
ful land. The story of Captain John Smith then followed, and
a week was spent on the history of the first year at Jamestown.
The children were able to anticipate in large measure the di-
rections given by the London Company with regard to the
choice of a site and the precautions with regard to the Indians
and other possible enemies. They were surprised that Smith
was not chosen for leader and were sure that he would be later
on. They condemned the "common kettle" in advance, saying
that the men would be even more lazy if that plan were carried
out because they would think some one would provide for
them whether they worked or not. This expression of opinion

f Course taught by Margaret Hoblitt.

LOCAL HISTORY 157

came from Vl-fc; Vl-a was Inclined at first to think that the
"common kettle" would be a good thing. The children felt the
value of Smith's early experience and his self-inflicted discipline
as a preparation for leadership. In VI-a this led to a conversa-
tion as to the children's plans for the future. They decided that
it was a good thing for a boy to look ahead to the life he ex-
pected to lead when a man and prepare for it.

The story of Smith's return to England was discussed briefly
and was followed by the administration of Percy, Lord Dela-
ware, and Sir Thomas Dale. The children were surprised to
find that even after Delaware had established a new order of
things and restored order in the settlement, Percy in his second
attempt was unable to enforce the laws and control the colony.
They asked whether he had not had the same power which
Delaware had possessed, and why, if he had, he did not make
as good a governor. They were reminded that in their group
they found one child a better leader than another, although
the conditions under which they acted and the authority they
possessed were the same. They were led to suggest the abolition
of the "common kettle" and the establishment of a system of
land tenure before they were told of the institution of this same
reform by Sir Thomas Dale.

The cultivation of tobacco, the story of its introduction into
England by Sir Walter Raleigh, and the growing demand for
it there were told. The necessity in Virginia for some develop-
ment of the country's resources in order to satisfy the expecta-
tions of those interested in England entered the discussion.
Some time was spent on the administration of Argall and the
events which led up to the establishment of representative gov-
ernment in Virginia on the basis of a new charter. The oppor-
tunity for a new form of government offered by the revision of
the charter was presented, and when asked what kind of gov-
ernment the people of Virginia would choose if they had their
own choice, the group proposed that form in which the people
themselves could have a voice. They were asked if this meant
that all citizens were to vote directly upon the laws that were
to be made, but they said, "No, each settlement ought to choose
some one to vote for them, just as we do now." The actual plan

i58 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

was then presented, and the coming of Governor Yardley and
the first meeting of the assembly described. The children sug-
gested some of the matters which would be probable subjects
of legislation; the amount of taxation and the treatment of the
Indians were among these.

The study continued with a detailed consideration of the
house and life of a Virginia planter and his family, the rela-
tions of the colony with the Indians, its subsequent political
history, and the changing status of its relations with the mother-
country. Many questions were asked with regard to contempo-
raneous English history. The children were jubilant over the
death of James in time to save Virginia from the kind of char-
ter which they felt sure he would have made and agreed that
under the new conditions the colony would be more independ-
ent than it had been under the Company. They then passed to
the period of Bacon's Rebellion, taking up the Navigation
Laws, the arbitrary rule of Berkeley, and the Indian troubles
as the causes for popular discontent. In Group VI-a party feel-
ing ran high, the sentiment of the majority being that the gov-
ernor was right. The similarity in the character of Bacon's dec-
laration to that of the Declaration of Independence, just a
hundred years later, was noted, but the significance of the
earlier rebellion seemed to make little impression on the chil-
dren. At the close of the study a general summary was made
by the group and teacher, followed by a review in which the
children quizzed each other with considerable rivalry as to who
could ask the hardest questions.

THE STUDY OF PLYMOUTH COLONY

The study of the Plymouth Colony was then begun.8 The
children had already learned something of the religious dif-
ferences in England, and of the religious freedom which the
people of Holland had won for themselves. When the story
of the Scrooby Congregation was taken up, they were accord-
ingly ready to suggest that the people go to Holland to live

s Course taught by Georgia F. Bacon,

LOCAL HISTORY 159

when they no longer felt safe in England. They also suggested
the departure from Holland to America. The question was
asked as to how they could obtain the necessary funds, and
finally it was suggested that they borrow money and promise
to pay back the value of it in timber and anything they could
find in America that would be of value to the merchants in
England who would lend them the money.

The story continued with the settling of Plymouth. Brad-
ford's account was read to secure a description of the country
and the first experience ashore. The children asked what the
women did while the men went ashore and were told of the
first wash day on Cape Cod. They planned the division of the
company into families, allotting the single men to homes with
some one else, and asked eagerly for the men with whose names
they had already become familiar. They decided also that the
first building would have to be a fort and after that a common
house for their supplies. In this connection, they expressed the
opinion that the idea of having everything in common was a
bad one, but it was more likely to succeed here than in Vir-
ginia, on account of the difference in the character of the two
companies. When asked to plan for the distribution of land so
that no one should be favored more than another, they pro-
posed first that the governor make the allotments, and then
the best places be set aside and not used at all. This seemed a
needless sacrifice and far from solving the problem. At last, one
of the children proposed that the Pilgrims draw lots for their
plots of land.

The children were asked if they thought people could be
found now-a-days who would be willing to endure the hard-
ships which the Pilgrims encountered for the sake of their re-
ligion. Some said no, and some said yes. The lad who was on
the negative said that "people are too much hothouse plants
now-a-days." The others were to support the other side, but
failed to do so. They were then told briefly of the "spirit wres-
tlers" who have come to Canada to find a home where they can
be free— or hope to be— to live as they think right, and of Tol-
stoi's sacrifices for the sake of a principle. In the latter they
were much interested, asking many questions.

i6o THE DEWEY SCHOOL

The usual periodic review was given for the benefit of a long
absent member and proved to be the best thing they had yet
done. One child who had never before been able to offer any-
thing but detached statements was able to carry the story along
without hesitation and with a good grasp both of the general
sequence and details. Formulation of what they had done had
at last ceased to be unpleasant to them.

Reading was continued from various texts. The children
were anxious for more details than could be supplied. Names
of people and ships, those who died, and others who were mar-
ried were among the things eagerly sought after. Among other
things the question of the common house was once more dis-
cussed. The children had long anticipated the time when the
common store would be given up, and were ready for the trial
of an individual allotment of land in order to encourage better
effort in the trying times of 1624. They said they thought that
men would work better if they had a chance to keep the results
of the work themselves, and that there would be some who
would not work at all if they could live without it.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE TOOLS OF EXPRESSION

A period was given to finishing their written stories and one
to reading them aloud. This exercise gave an opportunity for
a review of the work on the Plymouth Colony in which the chil-
dren were asked questions suggested by their papers. Later each
child chose some topic from the story of the Pilgrims. One be-
gan at the beginning; another chose the first encounter; and
some could not choose without help. The papers were much
better than those that they had composed as a group by dictat-
ing to the teacher and then copying from the blackboard. The
children worked much more industriously, tired of their work
less quickly, and showed greater freedom of expression. The
work was continued through the second period at their own
request, and one period was given to spelling a list of words
which they had needed in their writing.

Subsequent periods were spent in reading aloud the story of
William Blackstone and the coming of the Puritans from Pil-

A BUSY MORNING IN THE TEXTILE STUDIO

LOCAL HISTORY 161

grims and Puritans. A list in writing was made of the principal
events of this period of history, with the dates. This was the
result of a discussion in which some of the children had shown
rather hazy notions of the sequence of events, and they took
great interest in straightening things out and, when the papers
were finished, declared that they must be taken care of, for
they "were worth saving."

The story of the coming of the Puritans, introduced a discus-
sion of the settlements made by Roger Williams, Thomas
Hooker, and others who found the rule of the Puritans too op-
pressive. The departure of Blackstone in order to free himself
from the "Lord Brethren" was the starting point of the dis-
cussion. The children were divided as to the amount of re-
ligious liberty which ought to have been allowed. One said that
the Puritans had a right to any plan they chose and ought to
be allowed to make church membership a condition of citizen-
ship if that seemed the right thing to do. There was plenty of
room, so that those who did not agree to this could find another
place and live in their own way. The same question came up
again in connection with the story of Roger Williams. There
was also a similar division with regard to his criticism of the
settlers for dispossessing the Indians of their land. One said
that there was room enough for the Indians and the white peo-
ple too, and that the Indians did not care very much where
they lived anyway— this inference being drawn from the fact
that they were in the habit of roaming from place to place. It
was, therefore, all right for the white people to take all the
land they wanted, if they did not drive the Indians from land
which they were actually occupying. The children saw that the
religious intolerance of the earlier settlements was an aid to the
growth of the new country, since there would be less reason
for people to scatter if the terms on which they were admitted
to the older settlements had been less severe. Before leaving
the history of the New England colonies, the children worked
out the formation of the Federation of '43, with the causes
which led to it, its advantages, and its weaknesses.

The children read accounts of the early settlement in New
York. They were told something of the Muscovy and the United

i6s> THE DEWEY SCHOOL

States India Companies, saw the opportunities for trade opened
up by Hudson's discovery, and were led to suggest a West India
Company. Young Puritans of Old Hadley, was read aloud.
The book proved rather too difficult for the children to read
by themselves. They later proceeded to work out the probable
course of events in the settlement of New York.

A study of the physiography and geography of the coast col-
onies was earned on with the history study and was similar to
the study of the environs of Chicago. It was supplemented by
experiments in plant physiology. The topography of Virginia
furnished topics for the study of the formation of a river system
and of a mountain-range and was also considered in relation
to the gradually developing social life of Virginia. At the be-
ginning of the study an attempt was made to get the children
to eliminate, one by one, the conveniences of civilization with
which they were familiar until they began to realize how it
would seem to live in America without a single railroad, steam-
boat, or road of any kind except Indian trails and rivers; to be
dependent upon England for every yard of cloth not brought
with them, for salt, pepper, sugar, vinegar, tea, coffee, and so
on; to have no fuel except wood, no means of lighting a fire
except flint, no oil for lamps, no lumber but hand-hewn logs.
When the children had sufficiently imagined the conditions of
pioneer life, they were able to picture the English settlement
of Virginia, as they had that of Chicago, in its physical setting
and could then reconstruct more easily the typical industries
that would occupy the people of each colony. As they followed
the development and progress made in these activities, the
growing organization of social life became more clear.

In their study of the probable equipment of a colonial house
the use of pewter dishes was mentioned. In response to a very
evident and real curiosity an experiment was arranged to help
them discover for themselves the constituency of pewter. When
the children found that it would mark paper, they at first pro-
nounced it lead with which they had worked the year before.
The next test suggested was the melting point. They found this
to be higher than that of lead. It was then suggested that it
must be mixed with some harder metal, such as zinc; and zinc

LOCAL HISTORY 163

and lead were fused, cooled, and melted again to determine the
time required to melt a given quantity. While the melting
point of zinc or lead alone was low, when combined it was
found to be high. It was then suggested that tin be added to
see its effect upon the combination. Zinc, lead, and tin were
then fused, and the combination found to be nearer that of
pewter. Bismuth brought the alloy still nearer. The children
were then told that sometimes antimony and copper were also
added and were given the approximate formula that was used
in colonial times: 80 per cent tin, 7 per cent antimony, 2 per
cent copper, 2 per cent bismuth, 9 per cent lead. The pewter
made was pressed into thin sheets between smoked pieces of
zinc and then hammered into miniature dishes. While working
with the different metals, many questions were asked and an-
swered concerning tests for various metals and methods of pre-
paring them for use. Other work in science was divided be-
tween the actual work of planting and caring for gardens and
the experiments connected with an understanding of plant life.

In art work the children were able to express their ideas in
clay and were given their first instruction in modeling large
pieces. Their models of the Bary£ lion and tiger were each
fourteen inches in length and were cast in plaster of Paris when
finished. The responsibility of keeping the clay moist between
lessons was placed upon the children, and their interest in mak-
ing good reproductions kept up to the end. As these pieces were
large and took a good deal of time, they were occasionally laid
aside for a lesson in sketching or designing.

Some of the children in this group were tone-deaf and re-
ceived individual instruction in music. It was found that they
could most easily recognize and imitate the G above middle
C, and could then go to B or D above. These notes were then
combined in the time of a trumpet or tally-ho call. From these
notes the more difficult intervals were taken up. Considerable
success attended this method, and the children who before
had not beeen interested in the composition of class songs or
class music were able to help as well as enjoy.

Physical culture for this group was, in pleasant weather, out-
door games under the direction of the instructor and, at other

164 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

times, indoor drills. Special attention was paid to planning
movements and acquiring quick perceptions.9

In this year a beginning was made in differentiation of
studies. In addition, therefore, to the number problems that
arose in connection with other subjects, a special time was
given to drill in number work. In connection with cooking,
problems arose which could be solved by actual measurement.
For example: if one-fourth of a cup of wheatena (the right
amount for one person) requires one-fourth of a cup of water,
how much cereal and how much water will be needed to cook
cereal for six (or more) children? The child to whom the duty
of cooking the cereal was given could measure the quantities,
but this was easily seen to be a tedious process, so the question
of finding a quicker way was taken up in a separate hour. The
process used was that of adding small units and then grouping
them in larger ones, as the children had not studied multiplica-
tion or division. The addition was also seen to be a slow way,
and the shorter process of multiplication was explained.

SUMMARY

Group VI had now completed their sixth year of the study
of social life as mirrored in its occupations. The first three
years their interests had been in persons— their actions and the
products of their activity. The view of society had been a static
one. It had not been actively concerned with how these had
come to be, although curiosity had been gradually awakening.
The fourth year's work centered in the study of early civiliza-
tions and the gradual development of social life through dis-
covery and invention. In this year the children also began to
see in a dim way that the physical world and all its life are the
result of the evolutionary process. In the fifth year, by follow-
ing a few of the great migrations and explorations that opened
up the continents of the world, they built up an idea of the
world as a whole, both racially and geographically. In their
imaginary travels they acquired some knowledge of the place

« Elementary School Record, October, 1900.

LOCAL HISTORY 165

of the earth in the universe and its large physical forces and of
the means that man has used to meet or employ them. They
then settled down to the study of a specific people in a specific
way and learned how, through the agency of individuals,
groups of persons have subdued the untoward elements of
their physical environments and have utilized the favorable
ones. By a more or less differentiated study of the physical set-
ting (including its biological aspect) they came to realize some-
thing of the effect of environment upon the occupations of a
group of people, and the resultant type of the organization and
character of social life.10 At the same time, through an ever
greater participation in the general social activities of the
school (printing, assembly, outdoor and indoor games), these
children consciously or unconsciously utilized their subject-
matter in their present community living.

10 Georgia F. Bacon, "History," Elementary School Record, November,
1900. This section contains the substance of the above article.

CHAPTER IX

COLONIAL HISTORY AND
THE REVOLUTION

GROUP vii (AGE TEN)

^NE of the sections of Group VII was under the direction
of the head of the textile department, and the other of the
director of history.1 These groups met in one of the dining
rooms and in one end of the kitchen laboratory, which was
also used for discussion and recitation. Their study centered
around the activities of the colonial period. The study of the
development of the textile industry set the trend of their in-
terests, which were mainly in the invention of mechanical de-
vices and the discovery of processes. There was an increasing
amount of individual research at the ten-year-old level and a
corresponding gain in the power of self-direction.

It had been assumed, up to this time, that the interests and
attitudes of boys and girls were similar, as no marked dif-
ferences had been observed. One of the first instances of a dif-
ference, probably reflecting the study of the colonial period,
was the division of labor which naturally developed in the
construction of the colonial room, one of the projects under-
taken as a group. The boys, of their own volition, chose to
build the furniture for the room, and the girls undertook the
making of the bedding, rugs, and other fabric equipment.
However, both worked together on the construction of the
fireplace, which was an entirely new enterprise and, therefore,
highly interesting to all. There was a marked increase in the
amount of time given to chosen interests and activities in out-

i Althea Hanner, Georgia F. Bacon.

166

COLONIAL HISTORY 167

of-school hours, which was a happy indication of the good re-
sults of self-initiated, self-directed, and increasingly meaning-
ful occupations. There was great inequality in the ability of
the group in using die tools of communication. Consequently,
it must be kept in mind that the basis of grouping was not skill
in the use of any kind of tool, nor chronological age. It was
harmony and fitness as revealed in social attitude. This har-
mony was often disturbed by the introduction of pupils from
other schools.

THE STORY OF THE AMERICAN COLONIES

The history for this group was a study of the growth of
unity among the different colonies, the resultant growing in
independence of England, and the social and political develop-
ment that followed. One week was spent in reviewing the con-
ditions in America, previous to the revolution. The develop-
ment in government, the cooperation needed among the
colonies, and the growth of the home industries were discussed.
The group talked of the various ways that the colonists be-
came acquainted through the growth of the longshore trade
and the increased travel on the improved main highways, such
as the road from Boston to Philadelphia. Correlative with this,
they studied the geography of the colonies and the develop-
ment of agriculture, how the homes and towns and villages
were organized and governed, and the various industries that
occupied the people.2

As class and teacher grew acquainted, many in the group
were found deficient in ability to read or write with ease and
proficiency. In consequence and after discussion, the group
decided to give, for a period, much time and attention to col-
lateral reading. This reading was planned to give a review of
work previously covered and to lead up to the period imme-
diately preceding the revolution. Writing lessons were also
begun, supplemented with drill exercises on words or con-
struction that troubled them. Most of the children entered into

2 Course given by Georgia F. Bacon.

i68 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

this arrangement with whole-hearted acceptance of its being
the best way out o£ a bad situation. They recognized that they
could not go on with the term's work until they could read
the books that held the necessary information. Each day they
asked for a lesson to prepare at home, and at the end of the
three months, with the exception of two children, they were
able to read independently enough so that regular historical
work was again resumed.

In reviewing the work of the previous year on the Virginia
and Plymouth Colonies for the benefit of the children who had
not done that work, the social differences between the two
colonies seem to have made a great impression on the group.
Their work on the products of New York carried them into
a discussion of the kinds of occupations which could be carried
on in such a country as Holland. They concluded that the
Dutch necessarily would be a commercial and manufacturing
people, and were told of the commerce of the Dutch with the
East Indies and of the length of time it took to make the trip.
They looked at the map and concluded that it would be much
shorter to go straight west, if only America were not in the
way. They knew from their study of the Virginia Colony that
the Europeans believed the American continent extended only
as far west as the Allegheny Mountains, and that the great aim
and end of all discoveries at this time was to find the rumored
passage which extended through the continent.

The discoveries and explorations of Henry Hudson, the
formation of the great companies, and the necessity of asso-
ciated capital for the great enterprises of the time were dis-
cussed. The group followed Hudson on his trip up the Hudson
River, heard of his seizure by the English and his second trip
to Hudson Bay under the patronage of the English people.
They referred constantly to the map, traced out the country
drained by the tributaries of the Hudson Bay, and were inter-
ested to know that this territory had since changed hands. They
then took up the establishment of trading posts at Fort Orange,
discussed the fact that only men came over at first and the
company's feeling that they must induce families to accompany
them so that the trade with the Indians might be permanent.

COLONIAL HISTORY 169

For a better understanding of the manorial relationship, they
were told of the old feudal system of Europe and were much
amused by the fact that, after it had been discarded in the old
country because it did not work, people could be so stupid as
to establish it in this country.

The home life of the colonists on the manor in New York
was taken up, and the construction and furnishings of their
log cabins, the clothing they wore, and the food they ate were
all imagined. They then discussed the crops raised, the neces-
sary preparation for market, the mills which were run by
wind power, and the markets to which the grain was sent. Each
day one child reviewed the work of the day before, the rest
supplementing. To this story the teacher added enough mate-
rial to keep it moving.

THE FURNISHING OF A COLONIAL ROOM

In connection with this rather extended and detailed study
of the home life of colonial times, the group planned and car-
ried through the furnishing of a colonial room.3 The first deci-
sion was for a fireplace large enough for an actual fire, and
stones were immediately collected and sorted. A four-post bed-
stead was planned, a colonial chair, a tall clock, and a spinning-
wheel. The girls said they would dress a colonial doll for the
room and weave a rug for the floor. Work was begun on the
furniture, and in fourteen days they had finished the bedstead,
the feather bed and bedding for which were made at home.
The stone was ready for the fireplace and work had started
on the clock, the spinning-wheel, the table, and the chairs. In
this process all the suggestions originated with the children,
who also brought in drawings of their plans. The fireplace was
a group undertaking. The pattern was drawn; the chimney and
the hearth were lined with asbestos. In their first attempt at
mortar, the lime had not been slaked, so they pounded and
wet it and used it immediately. This seemed to work all right

* This project was under the supervision of the shop director, Elizabeth
Jones, although the cooperation of the textile and art departments was
much solicited.

170 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

at first, but the mortar when dry, crumbled, "So," the report
reads, "we shall have to do the work all over again." The tall
clock, one chair, the center table, and the rag carpet for the
floor were completed. This took two weeks, then they started
rebuilding the fireplace. The old mortar was cleaned off and
more stones collected. This time the water was put on the lime
at night and allowed to stand in order to slake adequately, with
the result that the mortar hardened properly. The whole group
of children worked for a half-hour period, and two remained
to finish it. Bent iron was used as a frame to hold the stone
work of the flue, and the crane they had made was placed in
the fireplace as they built it. There was great excitement upon
the occasion of lighting the first fire and great joy and satisfac-
tion at finding that the flue drew well. One of the boys, quite
unaided, contrived a little spinning-wheel on his own scroll-
saw at home. The window spaces were cut, window casings
made, and the glass fitted to place. One of the children brought
a small mirror; a circular frame was made for it; and a picture
of George Washington was hung upon the wall. This group
spent more time in the shop than any other one group. The
children worked as individuals as well as cooperatively and
discovered for themselves the use of mechanical drawing in
making their plans. These were well drawn and exact and were
found good guides in cutting the wood. The place in their
method of an exact working drawing, therefore, was more
secure than if they had been required to use it through all the
previous years when exactness was not a fundamental necessity,
and the formation of a habit of the use of an exact method was
weighted with an emotional pleasure which made it a per-
manent acquisition. In addition, they also constructed a large
loom and shuttles for use in their textile work and caned a
number of chairs for the school.

The time and labor which the group expended in furnish-
ing this room brought home to them something of what it
meant to the pioneer families to be dependent upon them-
selves for shelter, for food, and for clothing. They saw how the
beginnings of many occupations and industries rose out of real
and pressing need, how certain individuals and communities

COLONIAL HISTORY 171

became experts in making certain things or in raising certain
crops, and how trade began. As the means of communication
improved, the exchange of various products, the growth of
agriculture, the home manufacture, and commerce with the
mother country also increased. The children compared the
social life of New England with that of the Southern colonies
and discussed the products that would probably be exchanged.
They decided that New England would lead in the manu-
factured products, and the South in farm produce. They saw
that this rapidly growing trade between the colonies would do
much to knit them together, to make them more dependent
upon each other and less dependent upon England, and would
lead to jealousy and interference by England.

To make this a concrete experience each child became an
imaginary captain who described his home, telling what long-
shore cargo he carried, where he unloaded, and what he took
with him on the return journey. They were told the current
point of view— that the colony existed primarily for the good
of the mother-country. Then followed much discussion as to
how England would be able to make money out of the colonies.
This introduced the Navigation Laws, and each child pointed
out his idea of the effect these laws might have on the pros-
perity of his captain. The development of the home industries,
which resulted from restrictions put upon trade by the mother-
country, and worked out in great detail, the wool industry
being chosen for special study. The children were expected to
do most of their own reading. Reference was made afterwards
to the map, and helpful geographical facts were explained. The
usual procedure was to draw a quick map of the eastern part
of the United States with strong characteristics of the coast
line, and on this were located the places and incidents dis-
cussed.

THE STUDY OF THE REVOLUTION

The study of the French and Indian War was then re-
viewed. The children saw that this war had taught the colonists
their own power and had given them military ability and
training. The question then came up as to who should pay for

172 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

the war, and the children read the story of the Stamp Act and
its results.

The logical sequence of the events that followed were seen
as the results of the Stamp Act. The Molasses Act was reviewed
and the revenge the colonists took in refusing to import goods
from England. It became clear how the navigation acts resulted
in smuggling by the colonists, and how it came about that the
English gave their officials authority to issue writs of assistance.
An imaginary individual case followed. They were told of
James Otis, who resigned his position as attorney under the
King in order that he might try a case of this sort for the
colonists.

Collateral reading dealt with the results following the Stamp
Act, its nullification, the taxing of tea, and the Boston Tea
Party. Two or three days were spent in this reading in order
that the children might secure a detailed picture of the times
and thus sense the intense feeling that was rife in 1775, espe-
cially in Boston. The story of Paul Revere was read, and four
of the children who had been east described different places
in and around Boston. Most of the children had read many
stories of this time and were delighted to find the historical
setting of these stories. M. told of the boys in Boston who
remonstrated with the British officer over the interference of
his soldiers with their sports. When the group heard of the
Quartering Act and the placement of British soldiers in Bos-
ton, M. was much delighted to find that her story had really
happened at that time, that it had a genuine setting in both
place and time.

The children read the accounts of the battles of Lexing-
ton, Concord, and Bunker Hill out of school hours. They were
far more interested in planning the campaigns and surmising
and forcasting the movements of both the British and Con-
tinental Armies than they were in the gory details of the bat-
tles. Class discussion brought out why the battles were fought
in these places and the preparations made for them by the
Americans. The account of the capture of Ticonderoga which
supplied the Americans with ammunition and arms, the siege

COLONIAL HISTORY 173

of Boston, and its evacuation by the British then followed.
The children were much interested in how Washington ac-
complished the reorganization and drill of the army and
amused that the northerners thought Washington a "dude."
They were much impressed with his character and especially
his patience while waiting near Boston for munition sup-
plies. When asked "What are the qualities of a great general?"
they decided that one highly necessary characteristic is the
ability to imagine what the enemy will do and prepare to
frustrate that plan.

The class was asked to forecast what the British would do
after leaving Boston. At first they were at sea, but finally agreed
that the best plan would be to try to divide the colonies. After
the reminder that there was an army of British soldiers in
Canada, and with the relief map of the United States before
them, the group decided that the British would attempt an
approach to Lake Champlain both from the north and from
the Hudson River Valley. The children then realized that a
forest would be an impassable barrier for the army and were
told of Howe's plan for Burgoyne and St. Leger to come from
the north, while he advanced up the Hudson River, with a
meeting near Albany. This accomplished, the colony would be
divided.

The aim of this course was to emphasize the geography of
the country rather than the sensational features of warfare.
To this end much time was spent on map work, and the chil-
dren were encouraged to plan the campaigns of the war them-
selves, to select important strategic points, and decide what
moves would be made, on the one hand to capture, and on the
other to defend. The children grew so interested that a large
relief map was begun, and the various campaigns of the war
were worked out under the direction of a leader chosen by the
group.

THE STUDY OF TERRITORIAL EXPANSION

Two periods were spent in the discussion of the Declaration
of Independence and the attitude which the different colonies

174 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

took toward its acceptance. The terms of the treaty at the close
of the war were discussed, and the United States territory in
1783 was traced on their map. The remaining time was spent
in a brief study of the territorial expansion of the United
States after the war, and of her gradual growth in unity. They
were told how Lousiana, then extending from the Mississippi
to the Rocky Mountains, came into the possession of the United
States; they reviewed the Lewis and Clark expedition down
the Ohio River, up the Missouri, and across the mountains into
Oregon and the claims of the United States to this region,
based on this exploration and those of its early settlers. They
did much collateral reading and spent two periods a week in
writing a story of the Revolution based on one that they had
heard read. At this time they became much more conscious of
the looks of their papers; several even voluntarily copied them
in ink.

The topic of territorial expansion finished, they took up in
more detail the current trouble with Spain; the children them-
selves furnished a good many of the pertinent facts. The result-
ing treaty, which involved the question of quelling difficulties
in the Philipines, the acquisition of Porto Rico and one of the
Ladrone Islands, and relevant discussion included a critical
survey of how the Hawaiian Islands came into the possession
of the United States. A short sketch of their discovery by Cap-
tain Cook was given, of the subsequent migration thither of
missionaries and speculators, of the gradual, general immigra-
tion of foreigners, and of the final request of the white popula-
tion that Hawaii be annexed to the United States.

The story of the purchase of Alaska from Russia by the
United States then followed; its climate was reviewed; and
the reasons why it was valuable to the United States. The gold
of the Klondike was first thought of, but on thoughtful con-
sideration the children found that its gold resources were not
known at that time. They then suggested sealskin as a valuable
product and were told something of the trouble between Eng-
land and America over the seal rookeries and of the boundary
dispute between the two countries.

COLONIAL HISTORY 175

THE STUDY OF COLONIAL INDUSTRY

The introduction of industries necessary to provide food,
clothing, and shelter for the early pioneers naturally brought
many changes, changes which did much to shape the subse-
quent political history and the social life of each community.
Each house at first was its own producer, but even here there
was a division of labor. The study of social life was largely one
of the gradual development of its industries, the increased ef-
ficiency through invention of machines, and the social reor-
ganization and adjustments that follow the introduction of
labor-saving devices. The textile industries in particular offered
much material and opportunity for individual investigation
and reinvention. The processes carried on in the home in-
dustries of the period suggested much study and experimenta-
tion in the cultivation and preparation of wool, flax, and cot-
ton. The group, after examining the different fibres, took flax
for special study. They agreed that so fine a root would need a
light soil and searched the map for river valleys which would
furnish the right conditions. The valley of the Nile, together
with Belgium and Ireland, were found to answer the require-
ments. Methods of sowing the seed were then discussed, and
the children decided that flax sown for seed only should be
scattered more than that to be cultivated for the fibre. Some
were sown in a window-box for observation, and that which
had been grown the year before was used for experiment. This
was soaked to soften the fibres and heckled with a heckle de-
signed by a member of the group. The spinning of flax was
demonstrated for the class by a German woman, and some of
the children tried to learn, but the time available was too
short to allow very satisfactory results. There was some ex-
perimenting with dyes. Various combinations of madder, fustic,
Brazil wood, alum, potassium bichromate, and copper sul-
phate were tried. (Group X later chose, from the mounted
samples of these dyes, a color to be used in a screen they were
planning.) Two of the group made soap, using lard and caustic
potash. Others attempted to bleach a piece of linen, which had

176 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

been woven by a member of the group, but without much
success.

There was also weaving of Indian mats on the looms that
had been constructed in the shop. Designs in color were made
for these mats in the art studio. The children also worked in
clay and water color, choosing from their history such subjects
as were adapted to their purpose. In making a relief of Wash-
ington taking command of his army, they studied the costumes
of the time and the face of Washington himself in order to re-
produce them to the best of their ability, and took turns in
posing for the group. The work in water-color was designed to
emphasize arrangement, color values and relations. A study of
perspective was also begun.

The aim of the study of the period of American colonization
was not to cover the ground, but to give children of this age
some knowledge of how social processes were used to secure
social results, how obstacles were overcome and means con-
trived to attain these results. The ulterior problem was by this
method to bring the child to recognize his own need to secure
practical and intellectual control of such methods of work and
inquiry as would help him attain desired results in his own life
situation. Pioneer life afforded many illustrations of patience,
courage, ingenuity, and continual judgment in adapting means
to ends, even in the face of great hazard and obstacle. The
material is so definite, vivid, and human that children of this
age can readily imagine and reconstruct situations and fore-
cast results and solutions. The method involved the presenta-
tion of a large amount of detail, the minutiae of surroundings,
tools, clothing, household utensils, foods, modes of living day
by day. Social processes and results thus became realities. When
younger, the child had identified himself in dramatic action
with the persons of his interest. Now, there begins an intel-
lectual identification; the child puts himself at the standpoint
of the problems that have to be met and rediscovers, so far as
may be, ways of meeting them.

The same general standpoint, the adaptation of means to
ends, also controlled the work in science, now differentiated
into the geographical (in its relation to social groupings and to

COLONIAL HISTORY 177

industry) and the experimental. The child learned to appreci-
ate that the natural environment affords resources and presents
problems, and was helped in his understanding by field ex-
cursions, planned that he might make his own observations.
These observations of a local situation, of what certain people
have done in a particular environment, furnish the data which
the child's constructive imagination uses to image more remote
environments. Out of it all, he abstracts his own general state-
ment of the probable relationships between physical char-
acteristics, the soil and climate of any locality and its natural
and commercial products, its typical industries and social
groupings. The idea of the physiography of North America,
and in particular that of its eastern coast, gradually became
related in the child's thinking to the doings of the various
groups of colonial settlers. It took on a concrete dress of mean-
ing and gradually extended into a large truth which the child
found could be used in his thought about more remote situa-
tions. This idea of the relation of habitat to people, gained in
the study and discussion of a relief map of North America, be-
came more significant as the children set about constructing
their own map. They found many deficiencies in their method
and skill in drawing maps. In order to get an idea of propor-
tion and of drawing to scale, they took up the relative sizes
of different bodies and met with the problems of dividing a
whole into its parts and the process of factoring. Individual
experimentation went on with the drawing and dividing of
rectangles into any number of parts, one or two children dis-
covering that if they doubled the divisions in one direction,
they could halve them in another without changing the num-
ber of parts. They also learned to use a compass and how to
measure a circle. After measuring the home room and making
a drawing of it, they made a map of the school grounds and
were then ready to start on their map, which had now ex-
tended to one of the whole world.

178 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

INTEREST IN SCIENCE

In the meantime the geological history of North America
was being studied. The children learned the difference between
old rocks that had been subjected to heat and those that had
been laid down by water, and examined specimens of granite
and of limestone. They pointed out the Laurentian Hills as
part of the original skeleton of the continent. They talked
about the effect of glaciers upon soil, compared the soil of New
England with that of Virginia, saw the difficulty of clearing
the former because of the glacier action, and decided that it
would take much longer to settle this part of the country than
to open up the West. In talking of the easiest ways west across
the Appalachian Mountains, some thought of the Potomac,
others of the Mohawk Valley and were pleased to find that
the railroads in New York State were along the Mohawk.4

In the experimental aspect of their science, interest cen-
tered in how processes yield results. Their work in physiology,
therefore, began from the functional side. After a little study
of the mechanics of the various types of levers and a talk on
the use of muscles in the body, they began by moving the arm
to discover the muscles by which this is done. They knew, of
course, that the upper arm must have one bone and the lower
arm another, and that both were moved by muscles. By feeling
and with the help of diagrams they worked out the places
where the muscles were attached, bringing out the fact that it
would be of no use, were both ends of the muscle attached to
the same bone. The function of the nerves was then taken up,
and the concept developed that the nerves are the paths of the
""feeling and moving messengers" which go to and from the
brain and make the muscles move. Ingoing nerves from the
muscles make us aware of what is happening.

A study of the eye was begun by seeing that the image of a
candle passing through a small roll of paper is inverted. The
children were also shown the way a ray of light passes through a
convex lens and from their own observations drew the conclu-

* From typewritten records of Group VII (ten years). Teacher, Mary Hill.

COLONIAL HISTORY 179

sion that to have a correct image on the retina of the eye some-
thing corresponding to a lens would have to be in front of it.
They then set up and carried through the experiment of the
image of the candle flame through a pinhole in a paper. They
tried putting a lens in front of the pinhole, found the difference
it made, and decided that the chief difference was in the focus.

The physiology of digestion led to some experimental work
with foods in the cooking laboratory. This began with the
determination of the different amounts of water which would
be needed with six different cereals in different quantities of
whole and fractional cups. In the work of the three previous
years, the children had found that in cooking, flaked corn
would take its own volume of water, and that by weighing
each cereal against the flaked corn they could determine the
amount of water required for that cereal. This was done for a
fraction of a cup and then for larger quantities. They then
weighed twenty grams of wheat flour, let it stand for a time
in water, and filtered off the water. This water was then heated,
and the children saw that it became milky and compared it
with heated water containing some white of egg. They had
previously tested the filtered water with iodine for starch. This
water was then reheated and refiltered three times in order to
remove all the albumen for weighing. The object of the experi-
ment was to find the proportion of soluble albumen in wheat
flour. Comments on the experiment were that the result ob-
tained by two in the class was a good deal below what it should
have been, owing to the number of handlings the materials
had to undergo, that the class as a whole had improved very
much in the way the apparatus was handled, and that this
should improve the results of the next experiment.5 This
quantitative analysis was repeated with a number of flours,
with milk, and with meats. The class had difficulty in trans-
lating the results of the experiments into percentages, so the
experiments were temporarily dropped, and percentage was
taken up. The children formulated their own multiplication
tables and drilled on them, changed measures of the English

Typewritten records of the school, 1900. Teacher, Mary Hill.

i8o THE DEWEY SCHOOL

system into those of the metric, and solved and wrote problems
involving these processes.

At the beginning of the next term teacher and group dis-
cussed the work of the preceding term. The children felt they
"had changed around a good deal." They had "begun with
the body, after that experiments, and then a good deal of
number work." They were told that this term they were going
back to physiology, that it was necessary to know something
about foods before studying physiology, that it was also neces-
sary to learn how to make experiments, and that it was easier
to experiment with flour and milk and meat than with animals.
They were also reminded that when they did make experi-
ments, the results were of no use to them because they did not
understand how to use numbers, and this was the reason for
dropping the experimental work and studying numbers.

This explanation seemed satisfactory to the group, and dis-
cussion then began about the differences between plants and
animals, one boy suggesting that, "they had different foods
and different ways of taking them." Experiments followed on
the conditions and food necessary for growing plants. These
led to a discussion of the differences between plants and ani-
mals in this respect. Many excursions were made to Jackson
Park for specimens of plant life and for toads' and frogs' eggs
which were placed in the aquarium. As the course went on, the
group became much interested in biological problems and
asked many questions about different species. The monkey and
the descent of man aroused the most curiosity. One period,
therefore, was spent on an account of the Darwinian theory
of the origin of species. The discussion then turned to the
different classes of animals. The vertebrates and the inverte-
brates were given them as the two great divisions. Under the
vertebrates the group discussed the amphibian, since they had
been studying the toad, and under invertebrates the insects,
with which they were all more or less familiar. The class also
made a study of the earthworm.

Records were written by the children of their excursions, of
the dissection of the frog, and of the material read aloud to

COLONIAL HISTORY 181

them on the habits of toads. They learned a good deal of the
technique of making drawings of their work. These, toward
the end of the course, were of quite excellent quality. In con-
nection with their experiments with plants and the making of
a nutrient solution for their plants, they had had need to use
metric measurement, and time was taken to study this system
and to make cubic centimeter measures.

In addition to the number work which was incidental and
necessary to their laboratory work and other activities, the
group spent a great deal of time mastering techniques in the
various number processes. This was done willingly and often
with evident enjoyment. The work began with the four funda-
mental processes. The children worked out their own tables,
and made up problems of their own. Some of these were long
and complicated, involving several processes. "A woman had
40 hens; each laid 8 eggs; she gave away 24 eggs; she sold the
rest at 2 cents apiece; she has $80.00 in the bank. How much
did she have altogether?" Every night each child wrote out a
problem and brought it to school for the class to solve. They
then asked to have these printed and decided that they would
write an arithmetic. When learning the multiplication table
they also tackled division, C. volunteering the information that
if the division tables were the opposite of the multiplication
tables, you could prove the answer of multiplication by divid-
ing it by the multiplier. All the children tried it to see if it
would come out as C. said and thereafter were never satisfied
until they had proved every example. They wanted to go on
immediately to long division so they could prove the multi-
plication problems where the multiplier contained more than
one figure. This group experience demonstrated clearly that
this year is the peak point of interest in a skill just for sheer
pleasure in manipulation. Children of this age thoroughly en-
joy playing with numbers. This interest, when added to an
increasing desire to acquire skill because of its use in some
other activity, makes this year an important one in which the
child can easily and happily acquire many of his skills and
techniques.

i8* THE DEWEY SCHOOL

SUMMARY

In their earlier years these children experimented just to see
what would happen. At ten years they experimented to find
how materials or agencies must be manipulated to give certain
results. Since the predominate interest is still in practical re-
sults, the study of this period is a study of applied knowledge,
of applied science. In cooking, the child learns the general
principles of cooking by means of experimentation. He ana-
lyzes typical foods and observes the effect of heat and other
agencies upon the component parts. He classifies the food ac-
cording to its constituents and deduces his own rule or recipe
for its approved treatment. At the close of his study he is able,
in a guided group discussion, to make certain large classifica-
tions of food, to arrange his cooking recipes according to these
classifications, and to state the general principles governing the
right treatment of these so that they are suitable for digestion.
His study of food, therefore, through his own guided experi-
mental handling of it, becomes linked, in his thinking, with
the digestive processes of his own body and thus brings him
back by the route of logical thinking to the subject of physiol-
ogy. In sewing also, methods of cutting and fitting dolls' clothes
were gradually accepted as good means to get desired results.
Certain designs could be adapted to certain fabrics better than
others; certain dyes gave more pleasing colors. In art, the rela-
tion of means to end was seen in the practical questions of
perspective, proportion, spaces, masses, balance, and effect of
color combinations or contrasts. In music, melody and rhythm
were beginning to be used as the means to get a desired result
in composition.

The French for this group was taught by conversations about
topics of everyday interest, an occupation they were carrying
on, or a picture they were sketching. Special attention was
given more and more to forms of speech and to pronunciation.
Individual needs in voice training were met in connection with
reading aloud, and the children developed considerable in-
terest in the correct use of their voices. This was in many cases

COLONIAL HISTORY 183

extended to correct bodily posture and linked to special ap-
paratus work with individuals in the gymnasium.

This age often is characterized by intense activity. With
proper laboratory facilities and proper organization of subject-
matter into topics, a group of ten-year-olds, that are shielded
from distraction and waste of energy, can make much progress
in many directions. In the school, it seemed to those directing
the work that the children of this age grew by leaps and bounds
in their facility to handle all kinds of social situations, as well
as those demanding intellectual ability. Individual differences,
especially in interests, began to show clearly. The children were
also more conscious of each other. Comparisons began to be
made. While there were no overt symptoms of inferiority aside
from those in one or two of the exceptionally slow pupils, the
children, in planning the division of work, were discriminating
in their choice of individuals who had ability to carry to com-
pletion any part of an undertaking.

At the end of this year the children showed the effects of
their practice in experimental method. They had grown quite
skilful in abstracting the meaning of one action with regard
to the next. They had exercised their imaginations and
stretched them to larger objectives which had such interest for
them that they were content to wait and work for necessary
skills, the lack of which presented a practical difficulty to at-
tainment. They began to conceive of the end as something to
be found out and had had some experience in controlling their
acts and images so as to help in the inquiry and solution.

In history there had been a change from the biographical
method of approach to discussion of general social problems,
the formulation of questions that arise and possible solu-
tions. The children still needed a mass of detail in order to get
an adequate background of living and social situations before
they could appreciate the problems or foretell probable solu-
tions. Points about which there was a difference of opinion,
matters upon which experience and reflection could be brought
to bear, were always coming up in their history, as in the dis-
cussion of the common pot of the Virginia Colony. The fre-

184 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

quent use of such discussions, however, to develop the matter of
doubt and difference into a definite problem was necessary to
make the child feel just what the difficulty was. Again and
again at this point, it was necessary to throw him upon his own
resources in looking up material and upon his own judgment
in bringing it to bear on the problem or in getting its solu-
tion. When the question in a child's mind was formulated by
himself, was his own question, it became a doubt that needed
his reflective attention; it had a halo of interest which en-
listed his undivided attention. He needed no prod or spur, no
memorizing of ready-made answers. He actively sought and
chose relevant material with which to answer it and considered
the bearings and relations of this material and the kind of
solution it called for. The problem was his own, hence the
training secured by working out its solution became his own.
This was discipline in the school. It was self-discipline; it re-
sulted in self-control and a habit of considering problems.

G,

CHAPTER X

EUROPEAN BACKGROUND OF
THE COLONISTS

GROUP viii (AGE ELEVEN)

i ROUP VIII was divided into two sections on the basis of
previous school experience. Section a, the larger, contained the
children who had been in this school but a year and a half,
and section b those who had been longer in the school.1

Both divisions studied the European backgrounds of the
nations that had established colonies in America. Understand-
ing of these backgrounds would naturally help the children
appreciate the motives which sent the early explorers on their
migrations and lured permanent settlers to the new lands.
What these nations of the old civilization took to their new
colonies, what they brought back for use or trade, and how and
where they established the trade routes: these were some of the
points to be solved by the course.

SUBJECT-MATTER MODIFIED TO SUIT EXPERIENCE

The differences in the previous experience of the two sec-
tions made it necessary to use two quite different courses of
study. Group VHI-a 2 had not had the study of the world dis-
coverers. Their work, therefore, was analogous to that of Group
V. They imagined themselves living in Europe in the middle
of the thirteenth century. With a globe before them, they
noted the parts of the world known at that time and then took

1 Group teacher, Marian Schibsby, Latin and German; assisted by Mar-
garet Hoblitt, history.

2 In charge ot Margaret Hoblitt.

185

1 86 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

up the adventures of Marco Polo in Asia to see how Europe
became acquainted with the wealth of the Far East. They
learned how Venice and Genoa developed and the effect of
the introduction into Europe of the many products of India
and China on commerce. When the Turkish pirates cut off the
Mediterranean route to the East, these pioneer commercial na-
tions were forced to look for a new way, which led to all the
discoveries and explorations of the fifteenth and sixteenth cen-
turies.

The method used was to study the lives of the great men of
the period and thus gain an idea of the industrial and social
problems of the country and its political status. Prince Henry
of Portugal was first taken for study. The children then went
with Diaz around Africa, with Vasco de Gama to India, with
Columbus on his four trips to America, studied the settlements
of the Spaniards in the West Indies and Central America, re-
discovered the Pacific Ocean and the western coast of America,
conquered Peru with Pizarro, Mexico with Cortes, and finished
with the discovery of Florida and the lower Mississippi.

The language, both English and foreign, literature, and the
various other arts and constructive activities closely correlated
with the history study. In science, too, the interest and em-
phasis was on the discovery of the world as a whole through a
study of physical geography and of the formation of the earth's
crust. The science teacher thus built up the globe physically
at the same time that the history teacher was giving its social
and political development.

The fall work in science began with a general survey of the
earth, its shape, size, relation to and in the solar system, and
the effects of its different motions. Day and night, summer and
winter, the tides, and so on were considered. This introduced
the subject of gravitation, and the class quickly got the mean-
ing of weight. To show how weight varies with the mass of the
attracting body, the weight of a man on several planets, the
moon, and the sun was roughly estimated and compared with
that on the earth. The effect of this increase or decrease on
running, jumping, or climbing was a matter of much amusing
discussion. The numerous questions asked and the various

EUROPEAN BACKGROUND 187

conjectures stated indicated that the children were not lack-
ing in one kind of imagination. Various phenomena of gravita-
tion were brought out by supposing that the force did not
exist and imagining the difference this would make in every-
day life. The effect of the Japan Current on the climate of the
western part of North America was also studied. The aim was
to help the child realize the significance of a great physical
force.3

THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

Group Vlll-b made a different approach both in history
and science. After a quarter's intensive work in English litera-
ture, a study of English village life was undertaken. This was
made to provide a background for the work in literature and
also for a better understanding of the social life which preceded
and led up to the emigration of the first English settlers. As a
study for children who had done the work in Group VII it
proved almost ideal. In the first place it is real history. It has
to do with the lives of the people— what they did, how they
lived, how they acted, and what forces influenced their actions.
It is a stage of social life or culture which is typical of all
developments. It was of special interest to these children be-
cause it was English, and because in it could be seen the begin-
nings of most of the present industries in America. It is espe-
cially adapted to study at this age because it is simple, and
because it lends itself readily to constructive work. It gives a
chance to reason, to conceive of a village in its simplest and
earliest stage, to see its growth and organization, and to watch
its development into a feudal organization.

The dividing of village lands into that which was arable
and that for pasture and the old systems of measurement and
notation were taken up. The children discussed the sort of

s The children were eager to make thermometers, and as this fitted
in well with the work, a little time was given to this construction. There
were many accidents, of course, and many failures, but finally, nearly all
succeeded in getting the bulbs filled with mercury, and some of the children
started to mark the scale on the tubes. This threatened to take so much
time, however, that the children were asked to finish the work out of
school hours, which several did.

i88 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

land it was, the tools used, the seeds available and their sub-
sequent treatment as articles of food. Occupations were also
studied, that of the milkman, the shepherd, the swineherd, the
plowman, and the ironsmith, and what each contributed to
the village by reason of the value of product produced. The
qualities of personality which continued work in one trade
might develop in a group of people, the effect of this develop-
ment on their conduct in social situations, and their social
status as individuals in community life were brought out in
group discussion. This emphasis on the occupational side of
the study led logically to the conclusion that the classes of
people in the village, the villeurs, the cotters, and the different
kinds of workmen, were the products of their various occupa-
tions. The children grew able to distinguish or picture individ-
uals of one class from another. The lord of the manor would
be picked out by his dress. They would then add the details
of his life, his duties, the kind of house he lived in, and his
social status in the village. This would be in distinction to the
next lower class, the villeurs. Thus there grew up a clear pic-
ture of how the hard and fast class lines were drawn that even
now hold in the social life of England. Constructive work was
correlative; primitive plows and hoes, or mills and water-
wheels were made.

The general survey of the village industrial life extended
itself to a study of the political relationships of the social and
civic life of the village and to the conditions of England in the
tenth century. A rather intensive study of the feudal system
centered around the story of William the Conqueror and his
conquest of England. Richard and Philip were followed across
Europe in their crusade to the Holy Land. Certain chapters
of Ivanhoe revealed a picture of social conditions and the rela-
tions of the Saxons and Normans. The story of Sir Lancelot
was read and discussed and contributed something of the real
spirit of the age and the ideals of the knights.4 A general sur-
vey of the geography of Europe, of the British Isles, and finally

* The Boy's Froissart, Mort d* Arthur, and The Age of Chivalry by
Bulfinch were used as sources of information.

EUROPEAN BACKGROUND 189

of the world followed. Outline maps were drawn. On these
were traced the great land and water routes of trade, and the
different nationalities who had made settlements in America
were located with emphasis on those of the Dutch and the ex-
tensive claims of France, England, and Spain in America. As
the children seemed unable to express in written form what
they talked about with such evident pleasure, time was given
daily for each child to develop skill in formulating clearly and
correctly and in written form their knowledge of the English
village community. There were drill lessons in spelling, writ-
ing, and those language forms which they were unable to use
because they were unfamiliar.

The life of the English people at the beginning of the
seventeenth century was briefly reviewed to help the children
discover for themselves the reasons for exploration and why
the early colonists left the old and sought the new. Again these
children were carried far afield and once more traveled the
world around. They went to India with the English and estab-
lished the East India Trading Company (contemporaneous
with the settlement of Jamestown), compared the products of
these East Indian colonies ("nearly everything that can be
raised in any country grows in India") with those of America,
and understood the deadly rivalry that grew up between the
English and the Portuguese who in the days of Vasco da Gama
(1497) kac* established factories in this far-away land. They
thrilled to the destruction of the Armada, rejoiced in the
resultant freedom of the seas, marveled at the high-handed
division of the world by the Pope, and realized how this af-
fected the settlements of the Dutch and French in India. The
work as a whole enabled the children to place the history of
their own country in some adjustment to that of other coun-
tries. It also supplied the romantic and adventurous interests
of children of this age with the best cultural expression the
races have to offer.

igo THE DEWEY SCHOOL

ELEMENTARY SCIENCE IN HISTORICAL SETTING

In science, VIII-& studied elementary physics and physiology.5
After reviewing the principles of electricity covered in the
fall, they went on to a study of simple machines. A seesaw was
made in the shop, and each child drew the plan for and made
a pair of scales. They began their study of physiology with a
study of the leg and arm movements. The general subject of
body-movement as involving a series of joints was discussed.
They found the nature of the hip that of a ball and socket, the
knee joint that of a hinge; while the ankle possessed a more
pivotal motion, and the toes could be moved in all ways. They
worked out the mechanism of the forearm, locating the biceps
muscle by feeling, and the tendons that attach this muscle to
the shoulder and below the elbow to the forearm. They tried
to move a door on its hinges by a string attached in a way
similar to the attachment of the biceps and found it very dif-
ficult to do. They thought it queer the arm should be attached
in a way so difficult to move. In the shop at this time they were
making models of each class of lever.

In working out the principle of the lever involved in the
movements of the forearm, the children reviewed the metric
system of weights and measures. In order to take their think-
ing from the English system of linear measure to that of the
metric, they were asked to indicate in the air their ideas of the
lengths of an inch, three inches, four inches, one foot, and a
yard. The children who had been in the school some time
were very correct in their ideas of these distances. The others
were quite inaccurate. Their remarks showed much interest
in the metric system as a rational method in comparison with
the arbitrary measure of the English system. The importance of
this in being able to emphasize volume of cubic contents in
terms of weight of the standard unit, water, seemed to impress
them.

At the end of a week devoted entirely to work on the metric
system, they had formulated all the English measures and had

5 Katherine Camp, assisted by C. E. Marks and continued by Harry O. Gil-
lett.

EUROPEAN BACKGROUND 191

contrasted them with the metric system. In doing this they
worked out a statement of the meaning of mass and the way
in which measure of weight differs from all other measures.
In this discussion it was brought out that we do not know
what the so-called force of gravitation is. They were struck
with the convenience of having the measure of mass and of
cubic measure so constituted that one can be readily converted
into the other. Much of the time was spent in actually making
the cubic measure in pasteboard and tin, for they seemed to
have no clear idea of the comparative size of a cubic centimeter
and a cubic meter.

As the work went on, it was found that this group preferred
manual manipulation to numerical calculation. Two of the
children were to make a half-gram by taking a decimeter of
silver wire, finding its weight, and then calculating how many
centimeters they would need for a half-gram. For some reason,
probably to make the multiplication easier, they found how
much it would take for a whole gram. Then, instead of divid-
ing that amount by two, they measured the whole amount and
then tried to weigh backward to the half-gram on the scales
by actually removing the wire piece by piece without measur-
ing. As this indicated a real need to understand the use of the
numerical symbols in this operation as well as a lack of skill
in their use, much time was given to number work in con-
nection with those units of the metric system which they had
been making. As originally planned, they were to use the units
of both the English and the French systems in a study of the
arm, as an illustration of a machine, and in some other mech-
anism, such as a clock or a steam engine. Most of the time,
however, was spent on the different processes needed to work
out the experiments.

With the weights and measures they had made before them,
the children next were asked what could be used as a unit of
work. After about ten minutes discussion one child suggested
that the kilogram would be the unit in the French system.
Later on, the same child volunteered that if a pound were
raised a foot in a certain time, that could be used in the Eng-
lish measure. The other children had already given the horse-

192 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

power unit without knowing how many pounds or what rate
it represented. In all the examples they at first ignored the
question of rate and simply used the total amount of work
done. Their first problem was to show what would represent
%50o kilogram of work. This was accomplished, by choosing
M.500 °£ a kilogram for a weight. They were then asked to do
this problem in another way, and in most cases without sugges-
tion, they divided the distance moved instead of the weight.
They here had occasion to use the fractional parts of the foot
and pound and to reduce them to their simple forms. Time was
taken to develop familiarity and skill in such manipulation,
and the group then passed on to the use of the pulley, the
wheel, and the axle and formulated the laws involved.

After reviewing the main points in the machines constructed,
the question of the source of power for each was brought up.
Muscular energy was referred to food, and food to the light
from the sun. Then the power of the steam-engine was carried
back to the same source. The heat obtained in burning coal
brought up two questions. What happens to the coal in burn-
ing, and what is meant by heat? The first was answered in part
by one or two of the class and then postponed for further con-
sideration. The second was touched upon and then eagerly
discussed after an interval of four days. All the class gave in-
stances of the effect of heat on various substances; three de-
clared that heat was friction, several others that it was heated
or hot air, but were unable to state what they meant by hot
iron. One boy said that hot iron was full of hot air or hot gas
or something, i. e., heat. The subject of weight was reviewed
as a measure of the amount of matter in a definite amount of
iron. Three of the class declared that hot iron did not weigh
any more than cold; therefore, heat was not "something," i. e.,
matter, added on or taken away. One thought that as iron
expanded in heating it should weigh less when hot, that is, be
more buoyed up by the air replaced. Then followed a long dis-
cussion of the ways matter of various kinds could be measured
by taking a certain unit of each substance. Through the dif-
ference between the solid, liquid, and gaseous forms of water,
iron, and air, the conception of the molecular constitution of

EUROPEAN BACKGROUND 193

matter was developed. "Heat as a motion of the molecules of
the heated body" was a definition contributed by one child,
but was not comprehended. As soon as they understood the
theory of the different states of matter in elements, the chil-
dren asked questions about compounds. They then worked
out with some illustrative experiments: (i) the change of state
of an element such as mercury, lead, or tin; (2) the combina-
tion of two gases—hydrogen and oxygen; (3) the measure of
the unit of mass—specific gravity.

An opportunity was given in the shop-work to use the facts
that had been learned. The class tried to construct a clock
from a pendulum, bicycle sprockets, chains, and other neces-
sary equipment. They were able to work out the theoretical
part by themselves, but some of the mechanics proved too
difficult. They then constructed a set of balances which were
more sensitive than the first rude ones they had made. These
were for the school's use in weighing small packages.

The work in physiology was continued by a study of the
circulatory and respiratory systems. The class dissected the
lungs and heart of a sheep, and each child made a careful ex-
amination of the circulatory, respiratory, and digestive sys-
tems of a frog.6 The gills of the tadpole were compared with
the lungs of a frog. This led to a brief study of the meta-
morphosis of an insect, consisting of a summary of the various
stages of development and the determination of what con-
stitutes a complete as compared with an incomplete meta-
morphosis.

The main trend of the work of VIII-& was to build up the
physical and social backgrounds out of which the early col-
onists of America had come, to get an idea of their occupations
and how far they had progressed through the use they had
made of the resources of their natural environment, of the
social relationships that had resulted, and finally, of the
motives that had led certain of them to exploration and a
pioneer life in a new land.

At the close of this year these children were ready to under-

s One child was chosen to buy the heart and lungs at a butcher's, and
each child provided his own frogs and tadpoles.

194 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

stand next year's detailed study of the revolt of the American
colonies against the restraining hand of old custom and ancient
usage. They could sympathize with these early colonists who
in freedom had molded their new environment to their own
desires and had tasted the wine of purposeful and creative
action. They could understand that this wine could not be
bottled by old laws and selfish traditions.

INTEREST IN TEXTIIXS

Details of living and the industries of both colony and
mother-country filled in the background and contributed to
the mental picture that was gradually build up by the children.
The different methods of spinning and weaving fibres and
their preparation were discussed in detail. The children wrote
brief but complete histories of the development of the textile
implements used in carding, spinning, and weaving up to
the colonial period. They learned that the invention of ma-
chines had brought many improved ways of living, had changed
the organization pattern of many industries, and had left
many industrial and social problems for later generations to
solve. The invention of John Kay's fly shuttle had brought
about a scarcity of yarn and made spinning a more lucrative
occupation than weaving. An impetus was thus given to in-
ventions in the spinning industry, and the social and economic
conditions of the subsequent transition period were discussed.
The children realized somewhat the position of the spinner
and weaver, the beginnings of organization in several branches
of the industry, the misunderstanding of the value of machines
and the benefit of machine work to the community, the un-
fortunate position of the inventor, and the riots which followed
any invention replacing hand-work. They took up the prob-
lems men struggled over two centuries ago when the supply
and demand for yarn were so unequal that weavers travelled
the country seeking yarn. They understood the mechanics of in-
termittent and continuous spinning and were asked to invent a
machine in which a number of spindles were rotated by the
revolution of one wheel, that is, by power. This problem was

EUROPEAN BACKGROUND

195

given, not so much to stimulate the inventive power of the
children, as to make them realize the problems faced during
the transition period. A little research work was then done on
present-day methods of spinning in different parts of the world.
Each child investigated a country, and the findings were tabu-
lated as follows:

SPINNING

Machine

Wheels

Distaff

United States Patterson
Philadelphia

Kentucky Mountains
Tennessee "
Carolina "

Arizona
California
Alaska

* Indians

Canada, French Inhabit-

Mexico

ants

They also found that in a city like Chicago all methods of
spinning were still used due to the presence of newly arrived
emigrants from older civilizations. Some of the group had
traveled and from personal experience could describe primitive
forms of spinning in Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany, and
California, as well as the more advanced forms of factory work
in New England. Foreign helpers in some of the children's
homes supplied much information. Others used the encyclo-
paedia. This piece of work gave the children some idea of the
overlapping of different periods of civilization. The class also
constructed a Navajo loom for pattern weaving, making the
loom frames, battens, and shuttles.7

The experiences of the previous year in dyeing, including
indigo dyeing with copper in the vat, were reviewed quickly
and developed in one or two shades of blue and in white. Lamp
wicking was used. The colors were limited so the children
might realize the beauty of good spacing with two tones. Most
of the children made looms at home. Some made small looms
and wove with fine mercerized cotton dyed with aniline colors.
The children gave most of their attention to the design of
their weaving, comparing and vying with each other. In nearly

7 An interesting connection was the cooperative attempt to work out the
beginnings of a labor museum by the teachers in the school and the resi-
dents and foreign neighbors of Hull House.

196 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

every case, the design was modified after it was first made on
account of the weaving, the criticisms of other children or be-
cause of a development in their own critical faculty.

They next constructed a roller beam loom in which the
method of warping is intermediate between the Navajo and
the colonial method. This enabled them to trace the develop-
ment of warping as definitely as they had that of carding, spin-
ning, and weaving. Six children in the group purchased
spinning-wheels and spun Sax thread to use on the roller beam
loom. Those who did not spin used flax hand-spun by an Irish
woman. An accurate heddle was made in the shop from a care-
ful drawing, also made by the children. Small table mats or
doilies were woven on the loom— a type used in colonial times
for weaving such articles as tape and braid, The study of the
textile industry was reviewed and summarized by papers on
the history of carding, spinning, weaving, and warping, on the
original invention of the spinning machine, by a map showing
the present methods of spinning in different countries, by de-
signs for weaving on a Navajo loom and the tape loom, and
by the drawing of a heddle. These were bound together by
each child in a portfolio, decorated by an original and ap-
propriate design.

CORRELATED ACTIVITIES

The experimental work in cooking, which was a study of
meats for both sections of the group, took up the effects of
moist and dry heat on meat fibre. An analysis of meat and a
comparison of different cuts in order to discover the reason
for the superiority of some over others were also made. This,
with a review of their work on albuminous foods, and an analy-
sis of eggs and milk completed the elementary course in cook-
ing.

In this year the character of the work in physical education
changed. More time was spent in apparatus work than in the
younger groups. Emphasis was put upon the group's learning
to work and play together. Two periods each week the chil-
dren played games and gradually came to realize that it was not
what each individual did, but what they did as a whole that

EUROPEAN BACKGROUND 197

made for a victory. The quality of this work in the gymnasium
was excellent; good team-work and considerable individual
proficiency were developed in basket ball.

Much of the number work was connected with problems aris-
ing in various studies. One of these developed in connection
with the work in physiology. It was desirable to know how
much ventilation was necessary in two (a large and a small)
rooms of the school. The children first measured the rooms
and estimated their cubical contents. As one of the rooms was
irregular, they had to deduct the cubical contents of a jog
which complicated the work somewhat. They found, from a
physiology textbook, that the amount of carbon dioxide per-
missible in a room was two parts in ten thousand. In order
to use this in decimal form they were shown how to reduce
fractional parts to decimals of per cent and worked enough
problems to gain facility. The proportion of carbon dioxide
given out per hour by an adult and by a child and the time
it would take to reach this limit for the rooms under considera-
tion were then found. Next they estimated how much air must
be admitted to give perfect ventilation and found the average
velocity of wind in Chicago from a weather-map. These figures
were reduced to meters, and taking the area of the windows
in meters, they estimated the amount of air that would pass
through the rooms in a given time.8

The plastering had fallen from the ceiling in one of the
school-rooms, and the group wanted to find the cost of replas-
tering. With some help they were able to make allowance for
the closet. They found out the price of plaster and estimated
the entire cost. They also solved other problems which came
from their work in other subjects. As a result of their study of
the history of Chicago the previous year, they found the
amount of taxes paid by certain individuals and estimated
their property holdings. The school tax bill was worked out,
and taxes in general studied. Some time was also spent in ex-
plaining and balancing the budget of the school. The children
then added up the tuitions to see if they corresponded with the

s University of Chicago Record, September, 1899. Teacher, Georgia
F. Bacon.

198 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

account in the budget. They figured out how much material
the children would use in a month, in a week, and in a day.
A great deal of work of a formal character was also carried on.
The children developed their own multiplication table and
drilled on it, and on multiplication and division of two or
more figures. They studied fractions, square root, ratio, and
proportion. In the spring, for the first time, a textbook in
arithmetic was used, and each child systematically undertook a
review of the various number processes that had been covered.

The language expression of this group was varied. The
study of Latin and English grammar, parts of speech, and
sentence analysis was taught as a unit by one teacher.9 The
method of teaching in Latin, like that in French and German,
was by conversation and drama. Words were always associated
with the appropriate object, action, or quality. By writing from
dictation and answering questions on a Latin story, the chil-
dren grew familiar with the story in Latin before they at-
tempted to translate it into English. In some cases they were
able to tell the story in Latin without having made any con-
scious effort to commit it to memory.

In the study of English literature made by one of the sections
of Group VIII during the fall months, group and individual
instruction in vocal expression was given by a teacher es-
pecially trained in this work.10 The children were asked what
they would like to learn to read well. One child brought Miles
Stan dish. This was read in dramatic form so that they learned
to differentiate characters and to read description. In the be-
ginning they were very faulty in breathing. Some concentrated
well, others did not. Some lacked an average use of English,
but all showed a good spirit and worked hard. A few had a
very limited vocabulary, which the teacher tried to enlarge.
Later the children worked on poems selected for them indi-
vidually. These children, more than any other group, showed
interest only when they were reciting. Each was anxious to
recite his own poem, but the rest were not interested in hear-
ing him and did not listen. The children were also given

» Marion Schibsby.
10 Minerva Butlin.

EUROPEAN BACKGROUND 199

practice in reading their reports to the weekly assembly, in-
struction which was welcome as each child wished to deliver his
own report or that of his group with credit.

After hearing a series of readings from Howard Pyle's The
Merry Adventures of Robin Hood u in their study of literature,
the children discussed a figure and an image. They also talked
about three pictures of deer, Landseer's "The King of the
Forest" and "The Monarch of the Glen" and Bonheur's "On
the Alert," and found, or were guided to find, the words for
the deer, the epithets to describe them, and terms appropriate
to the chase. They memorized Shakespeare's "Under the Green-
wood Tree." This work was designed to give the children
power to read fluently and with expression. They had an
excellent background for this work. Texts with plentiful notes
gave them opportunity to look up all the references and to
prepare the lesson before they came to class. Each child first
read his passage slowly, then he reread it to gain fluency and
natural expression. The class drew a ground plan of a feudal
castle on the board, read a description of a castle from Viollet
de Due's Habitations of Man in All Ages, and did some written
work in connection with the reading.

Music and the graphic arts all had a place in the weekly
program, and were knit into the daily activities, illustrating
and refining them. They were always regarded as of peculiar
value, for by means of them the child's appreciation of his
experience found its best and highest expression,

SUMMARY

Toward the close of the year the children in this group had
gained in power to hold problems before their minds. They
could keep themselves from action for longer and longer
periods in order to consider that action in the light of possible
consequences. Ends were more often not just the overcoming
of practical difficulties, but something to be found out in order
to reach further ends, and in reaching them the child himself
learned to control and direct his own acts and images.

11 Mrs. L. M. MacClintock.

CHAPTER XI

EXPERIMENTS IN SPECIALIZED
ACTIVITIES

GROUP DC (AGE TWELVE)

experience of a twelve-year-old child in this school had
been a continuously developing one. His activities had con-
stantly extended in scope and significance. They had involved
much positive and detailed subject-matter that had enlarged
and deepened the world of his imaginative thought. The ideal,
not always fully realized, was that the subject-matter in science,
geography, history, or any subject should relate to the child's
activities and should suit each phase of his experience. For
him, therefore, geological, geographical, or other scientific facts
were part and parcel of the historical story and, introduced in
a synthetic and living way, thus became an integral part of
the stream of his experience. The mere beginnings of large and
fundamental concepts of the first early years were enlarged
through the later years, either by themselves or in relation to
still larger and more inclusive concepts. Widening areas of
activity frequently supplied occasions for introducing supple-
mentary lines of study which still further enlarged horizons
and increased the dynamic power of individual effort. In the
process real problems and difficulties often arose in the mid-
stream of action, obstructions which the child himself must
remove or circumvent. He saw that skill was essential to this,
and that repetition was necessary to skill and the attainment of
a finished result. His need for skill thus became sufficient to
engage him in its acquisition; he had an impelling motive
from within for analysis and mastering rules. This was found
to be possible only as formal work was kept in connection with

200

SPECIALIZED ACTIVITIES 201

active construction and expression which presented difficulties
and suggested the need of an effective method to cope with
them.

THE GROWTH OF SELF-DIRECTIVE POWER AND JUDGMENT

The conscious recognition of the relation of means to ends
steadily increased with the child's growth. Indeed it came to
be the specific unifying principle of the second stage of growth
—the measure of the child's development in thought and ac-
tion. Activities were planned to center around projects of
longer and longer duration and thus took on the nature of
occupations. Shop work with wood and tools, cooking, sewing,
and work in textiles reproduced or ran parallel to some in-
dustry carried on in social life, whether in the past or present:
In such work the child utilized the intellectual and the practi-
cal phases of his experience; for, in addition to skill and
technique, it involved constant observation of materials and
continual planning and reflection to carry out effectively the
practical or executive side. Mind, hand, and eye were needed.
There was, therefore, a continual interplay between ideas and
their embodiment in action. The great stress laid upon per-
sonal experimenting, planning, and reinventing required that
the child be mentally alert and quick if he were to do the out-
ward work properly.

Aside from its peculiar educational value to a child at this
stage of mental growth, the evolutionary study of the different
textile occupations, paralleling as it did the social history of
Colonial times, had brought him a deeper interest in and a
keener appreciation of the social life of the period, its problems,
and its contributions to the later life of the nation. The indus-
trial and economic progress of a colony of people was seen in
its proper relation to intellectual growth. The reciprocal value
o£ each for the other lay in the dependence of the one upon
the other, and the whole of experience was deepened and en-
riched by the fact that they geared into and reenforced one an-
other.

By reason of the nature of their school experience, therefore,

202 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

in the years from four to twelve these children had built into
the fabric of their consciousness an intimate knowledge of
materials of all kinds. They had traced many of these materials
to their sources or to their simplest forms. They had the easy
attitude toward them which follows in the wake of familiarity
and intimate knowledge. Each child was accustomed to take
raw materials and manipulate them to the form of his idea.
Lead in native ore, through controlled use of heat and the
child's own labor, became weights for his balance. He had
washed and scoured the unclean oily wool of the sheep with
soap of his own making, had carded it with a hackle of his own
invention, spun it on a spindle and wheel of his own construc-
tion. He had dyed the yarn with self-mixed color and on his
own loom had woven it into the self-designed pattern of his
rug. The genuineness and importance of his work had sunk
deep into his consciousness, for he knew it had paralleled that
of his own forbears. His way had followed their way; their
problems from start to finish had become his, for he knew
something of the situation and circumstances out of which
they arose, and of the methods and means used in their solu-
tion. Many facts were thus easily woven, by the child's own
effort, into the web of his experience. A method of thinking
was gradually adopted which from daily use became a method
of action, and it was the constant hope and ideal that new
significances of action, new appreciations of beauty, of good-
ness, and of worth in every field of endeavor might develop
out of these habitual ways. For these children, it can at least
be said that out of the years' activities was born the conscious-
ness that there was need to do what they did more quickly,
more effectively, and more perfectly, and with due considera-
tion for others.

With the close of the tenth year the second stage of growth
draws to a close. Just as in the first stage, the change is gradual.
The eleventh year, while it has been grouped with those of the
second period, was markedly transitional in character, and at
twelve years, the average child in this school was fully awake
to values of larger purposes and further objectives than those

SPECIALIZED ACTIVITIES 203

which had heretofore absorbed him. His observations of nature
had led him to carefully guided but self-directed experimenta-
tion. He had thus gained some command of the secrets of
nature and a measure of control of a few of her forces. In the
process he had exercised, to a greater or lesser degree, his power
to think logically, to initiate, and to execute. Out of such an
accumulated background of experience was born an under-
standing of the wonderful transformation in methods of pro-
duction and distribution that has taken place in the history of
the race. His eyes had been opened to how it had all come
about, because man had tried and kept on trying; it was the
fruit of experimental science, of a scientific method of putting
knowledge to use in all areas of living. While still a child in a
highly plastic stage of growth, he had imaginatively compan-
ioned man in the simplified physical and social situations of
ancient living and had experimented and invented to meet
exigent circumstance with immediate and adequate action.
He has seen how, with the lamp of his own mind, man had
operated in and worked on his situation with the result that
there was a better understanding both of the attendant difficul-
ties and of the way out In the story of changing civilization, it
had been brought continually to his attention that it was al-
ways science and scientific method that had broken down
physical barriers, conquered disease, and eliminated evils once
thought insurmountable. He came to have a sensitivity to the
difference in the quality of living in the "then'* and the "now,"
and of their contrasting values. Accompanying this was an in-
creased appreciation that scientific method was more than a
tool for the extension of his arms and legs, that in it lay the
possibility of using past experience as the servant, not as the
master of his mind. In varying degree it was true of these chil-
dren at this age that constant use of the test-and-see-for-yourself
method had developed in them a belief, greater than in most
children, in their own ability to direct their actions. As this be-
lief deepened and became apparent, each child felt himself
freed more and more from the necessity of guidance from
without and tasted of the true freedom resulting from inner

204 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

direction and control. At the age of twelve such a child was
often able to crank his own engine and keep going under his
own power and guidance for longer and longer periods.

This growing self-directive power was accompanied by better
judgment in selecting and abstracting from the subject-matter
of his former experience that which he thought would be help-
ful in the new. Abstraction thus came to be the artery for his
thinking, for by it he intentionally rendered one experience
available for guidance in another. Soon his conscious use of
abstraction to clarify and direct new situations, brought him
to discover how to generalize, to make his own rules, to
formulate a general principle, and to draw his own conclusions.
A term's work always concluded with a review and a summary.
The children did this with pleasure. In a long course of cook-
ing, cereals, meats, and many different kinds of foods had been
analyzed and classified according to their predominating con-
stituents as carbohydrates, proteins, and those valuable for
their mineral salts. While finishing up their cook books, the
children were astonished and delighted to find how few general
principles covered the cooking of so many different kinds of
food. This summary or review was always done both by indi-
viduals and by all the children working together. In addition
to the stabilizing effect of a knowledge of inner power and con-
trol, there was a sense of security born from years of working
in and with a group, a trust in the efficacy of cooperative ac-
tion for the reconstruction of experience.1 This conscious use
of abstraction and of generalization, added to an increasing
sense of reliance on his own ability to find a way out of any
situation by trying what had helped before, brought a child,
in this school, to a forking of the ways at the age of twelve
when the individual interest and personal preference of one
child may see a beckoning down this path and another may
see it along a far different trail. From now on, for each one

i The present sense of insecurity is exaggerated in many persons by the
lack of experience in the use of a tested method of reconstructing individual
situations and social conditions through cooperative action. With no habits
of acting with others many of the younger generation professing high
social ideals fail to see that they themselves are not social in their personal
relationships.

SPECIALIZED ACTIVITIES 205

and for the school and teachers, the way of the group became
more difficult. Mere play of activity satisfied less and less. It
must accomplish more and must move on to an increasingly
definite, a more perfect and abiding outcome.2

The historical subject-matter, chosen with the growing child
in mind, had paralleled, as closely as possible, the phases of
his rapidly differentiating experience with those periods which
were characteristic and typical of similarly growing phases
of social life. By study of the work of the American colonies—
by following the road of their industrial and economic his-
tory—he had came to a real understanding of two of the most
fundamental aspects of social life. First, he saw how present
social life has been made more prosperous and secure. The
successive inventions and discoveries by which theoretical
science has been applied to the control of nature are thus seen
as the causes of social progress. Second, through participating
in similar work, he himself had come to grips with the things
that fundamentally concern all men, namely, the occupations
and values connected with getting a living. His conception of
history thus deeply embedded in actual experience and sup-
plemented with timely second-hand information, was colored
with a human, a democratic, and hence a liberalizing point
of view. It may be truthfully said that these children at twelve
years had a conception of history that was dynamic—it was
moving and progressive social life.

In their school life, the children of this group were active in
school assemblies, newspaper work, and all club activities.
They were so individual in what they undertook that at times
it seemed more difficult than ever before to carry on new group
plans. Four years of experimentation led to the development
of a curriculum for children of this age in which geography,
while connected with the history of the people studied, was

2 The physical and psychological tests on the children were conducted by
F. M. Smediey, A. D. Wood and Dr. D. P. MacMillan. Mr. Smedley and
Dr. MacMillan later shared in the testing of over six thousand public
school children. The results of this investigation were published in an
article by Dr. U. S. Christopher. "The Relation of Unbalanced Physical
Development to Pubertal Morbidity as Shown by Physical Measurement,"
The Journal of the American Medical Association, September, 1901.

206 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

concerned with larger wholes. It was the study of the growth
of the whole continent of North America rather than just that
of the eastern coast of the United States— the scene of their
previous historical study.

STUDY OF COLONISTS AS PEOPLE

With the experience gained from a knowledge of the Eu-
ropean backgrounds of the American Colonists, the children
resumed their study of the developing life of their own country
during the Revolution and the later period of westward ex-
pansion. In the light of the previous year's experience the
historical facts, the growing industries, and the resulting social
and political reorganizations became meaningful. With their
new point of view and enlarged appreciation of the colonists
as people— English, French, Spanish, Dutch— they had a more
intelligent understanding of the French and Indian War, the
Revolution, and the problems that arose in the subsequent
period of westward expansion and gradual acquisition of ter-
ritory. This study was carried through more or less success-
fully for the majority of the group.3 The same classroom
method was used as in the earlier study of the colonial period.
The rest of the work of the group, science, manual skills, com-
munication, and the arts of expression, correlated itself to the
historical program through appropriate activities and related
studies.

ACTIVITIES IN SCIENCE

The science for this group grew out of the material they
were using in the laboratory and included a detailed study of
sedimentary rocks. The illustrative experimental work in sci-
ence was planned to illustrate some of the more general proper-
ties of matter and to bring out the fundamental principle that
change of form involves expenditure of energy. Work began,
as always, with discussion; here it was concerned with the things
that are necessary to life. The children suggested food, clothing,

« Taught by Margaret Hoblitt.

SPECIALIZED ACTIVITIES 207

shelter, water, air. They decided that some of these were more
essential than others, but of all, air was the most essential to
life. In answer to "What is air?" they responded with several
of their own ideas. After a preliminary attempt at an explan-
ation of the difference between a combination and a mixture,
a series of experiments were undertaken to demonstrate the
make-up of air. Oxygen was separated from the nitrogen in
the air by its combustion with phosphorus, and the action of
phosphorus in combustion was contrasted with that of oxygen
and hydrogen. These experiments involved some discussion of
the molecular constitution of matter and were constantly com-
pared to similar reactions taking place in nature. The abstrac-
tions involved in the experiments illustrating the chemical
action of gases upon solids seemed too remote for most of the
class, although a typical example of a gas becoming part of a
solid was demonstrated by putting away weighed portions of
iron filings to rust for a number of days. The children had been
told many times that rust is an oxide formed by the contact
of iron with the oxygen of the air, but all but one or two failed
to appreciate what this meant. They thought that a union of
a gas with a solid would make the solid lighter, that either the
filings would not gain in weight at all or would lose. After a
few days the filings were again weighed and the percentage of
gain found in each case. This type of experiment was then
dropped, and a series with liquids and gases was begun.

As an introduction, an hour was spent in summing up all
the elements of the earth with which they were familiar and
in grouping them according to their state— solid, liquid or
gaseous. The state was seen to be dependent upon the amount
of heat and pressure. This was made much easier by the group's
keen interest in liquid air; two of the class had heard Triplets
lecture on the subject. The aggregation theory of the forma-
tion of the earth was explained to them. They themselves
contributed the idea of the original gaseous form of the earth,
but did not go on and suggest the cooling of the earth to a
temperature where life was possible, so a new start was made
from another approach. They were asked what temperature
they could endure and live. Discussion of this point in relation

208 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

to plants and animals brought them to the conclusion that
there are certain limits of temperature which limit the pres-
ence of life. Two sets of experiments illustrated the change
from a liquid to a solid or to a gaseous state. An experiment
with mercury showed the change from liquid to a gaseous and
back again to the liquid state. The melting and cooling of
type metal illustrated the change of state during solidification
and the processes of crystallization, expansion, and contraction.
The necessary proportion of the metals used in this experiment
were looked up by each child and were reported to and checked
by the group. Finally, each child was asked to cany through,
without asking any questions, the whole series of experiments
and to report on the amount done at the end of three periods.

During the previous year these children as Group VIII, had
made a study of the electric bell and motor. An account of
Faraday's experiment with an iron core and a coil was the
starting point for their construction of a dynamo-motor. As a
preparation for a visit to Armour Institute they had reviewed
the things they would want to see. These were, in their pre-
ferred order: a motor, a dynamo, a galvanometer (which they
called a tester), a storage battery, and an apparatus for telegra-
phy.

In Group IX, these same children had another opportunity
to visit Armour Institute and revive their interest in electrical
machines. They saw three kinds of galvanometers and, while
looking for them, asked for the first time for the name of the
unit of electric measurement. They already knew that the
method of measurement was the work done. A powerful elec-
tric magnet gave them their first conception of magnetism as
a real force. They could feel the force on a steel screw-driver as
it required all their strength to prevent its moving between
the two poles of the magnet. One of the children asked in great
excitement, "What is happening between those two pieces of
metal?" They also saw alternating and direct dynamos and
electric motors with two kinds of armatures and understood
that dynamos can be used to generate current and also as a
motor. One of the children went home and made his motor
into a dynamo with a small steam-engine as the source of

SPECIALIZED ACTIVITIES 209

power. The girls showed little interest as compared to the
boys, but all came home with the determination to make a
galvanometer in the shop and, if they could find the parts, a
motor and a dynamo. At Armour they were taken to a shop
where a motor was used to run a planer and a jig-saw. This
aroused great interest and the repeated comment, "How much
we could do if we only had one!" They also saw a portable
testing ammeter and voltmeter and asked what each measured
and were told how the two instruments could be made to
read in different parts of the scale by the amount of wire
wound from one cylinder onto another, thus making, as it
were, the resistance visible.

The opinion of the director of the course * was that a visit
of this sort should be made at the beginning of the course and
again at its close. They then could have carried the conception
of the force they had seen acting on a large scale over into
their own experiments of force on a small scale. The concep-
tion would have been clearer than the reverse order of occur-
rences. The second visit could then have been made to review
and to give them some conception of methods of measure-
ment and the value of the units used.

After this interlude on electrical machines, the group re-
turned to their study of the change of matter and started a
series of experiments to illustrate these changes as they occur
in the making of various alloys, such as type-metal, solder,
pewter, and fusible metals. Each child worked alone, wrote his
own record, a process which often involved study in composi-
tion to achieve clarity of statement. At the close of the work
each child with guidance summed up and formulated the
general principles he had learned.

The spring term work began with a review of what the class
knew about the formation of the earth. The children were
intrigued with Mr. See's theory of the cold nebular mass as
opposed to the ordinary La Place nebular theory. Their inter-
est in change of state, from gas to liquid or solid by heating
and cooling at critical points, was keen and carried over well

* Katharine Camp.

210 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

to the story of such changes occurring in the earth's formation.
When the children had grasped the idea of the earth as a ball
covered with a rocky crust and surrounded with an atmo-
sphere, they went on to changes which have taken place on the
earth and can now be seen. After some questioning and dis-
cussion they stated that there were three kinds of rocks: (i)
lava, granite schists; (2) rocks like marble, which have been
changed; (3) water-formed rocks. In discussing metamorphic
rocks, they said the gas around the earth would change rocks
directly forming crystals without the action of water. They
used the word oxides and described the iron sulphides al-
though they did not know their name, placing these in the
second class of rocks which had been changed by heat and pres-
sure. The teacher gave terms igneous, metamorphic, and sedi-
mentary during the discussion. The children recalled from
previous work that slate was formed like clay and had been
changed by pressure, that granite was the oldest unchanged
rock they knew, and that sandstone and limestone had been
laid down or made in the water, and gave other evidences of
remembering this work well. Part of the class then made ex-
periments illustrating the formation of sedimentary rocks and
the action of carbon and sulphur dioxide upon these rocks.
Some time was spent formulating the proper order of impor-
tant points in the records of the work. The children wrote
their summaries more successfully this year than they had
those of the same work the previous year. Examples follow:

THE STORY OF How LIMESTONE WAS MADE

A long time ago when the earth was new, when it was lava, there
was no water on the earth, and there was steam all round the earth
up in the air, as there were many gases in the air. One of them was
carbon dioxide. The steam became clouds, because the earth began
to cool off, and after a while it began to rain, and the water came
down and dissolved the carbon dioxide from the air. When the earth
was cooling off, calcium was in the rock lava. The water ran down
in the rocks, and the carbon dioxide takes the calcium out of the
rocks and makes calcium carbonate. Calcium carbonate dissolved
in the water. The little animals eat the calcium carbonate and make
their shells— corals, snails, oysters, etc. These shells are pressed down
by other shells, and at last they are all made into limestone.

SPECIALIZED ACTIVITIES 211

Calcium carbonate comes from all little animals that have shells.

Coral, having such a great many little animals, so that when they

die there is a great deal of calcium carbonate left by the skeletons.

The other way of making calcium carbonate is in caves. The water

leaks through and leaves calcium carbonate in the form of crystals.

Marble is calcium carbonate under great pressure and some heat*

The next experiment is to find out if there is calcium in lava.5

I took some lava and put on some hydrochloric acid (strong).

There was no action that could be seen except when I heated it, and

then a vapor came ofLG

When I evaporated it, it left a little bit of dark stuff in the bottom
so that shows that there was some action and the acid did take some-
thing out of the lava. Then I let it stand for a few days. After I let
it stand I rubbed a small piece of filter paper on the bottom of the
test-tube. The dark stuff had absorbed some moisture. Then I heated
it until it turned to a dark red color— which I don't know anything
about— but the dark stuff absorbing moisture shows some of the dark
stuff on the bottom of the test tube was like calcium chloride.7

The science work for the rest of the year consisted in follow-
ing out the geological history of the United States which was
now clearer since this experimental work had illustrated some
important natural facts and processes. The children were given
their choice of illustrating Shaler's Story of Our Continent
with maps and diagrams or of working out and illustrating one
topic of special interest to each pupil. These, one of the chil-
dren immediately suggested, could all be put together and
made into a book. Two of the topics chosen were the history of
the Mississippi Valley and of the lake region as showing the
location of the great limestone, clay, and metal deposits in the
United States.

After a period of arithmetic tests, plans for detailed indi-
vidual maps showing the location of a mineral or other natural
product were begun. The fact that these maps combined would
give a complete map of the country aroused much interest.

s Lava meant igneous rock before it had weathered. The lava used
came from the Hawaiian volcanoes.

s One or two of the class heated hydrochloric acid without any lava, and
found that the same vapor came off as when the lava was in it.

7 The children had made calcium chloride and seen it dissolve in water
absorbed from the air. University Record, Vol. Ill, No. 49, Teacher, Kath-
erine Camp.

212 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

The children decided that all would have to use the same
scale and system of marks. What these should be was decided
by a vote on each suggestion. They voted to show the outline
of the country by a black line, to outline the states by a dotted
line, to show large cities by circles with radiating points, sea-
ports or towns important because of their nearness to mines or
quarries by small squares, canals by a double line with cross
marks, railroads by a single line with cross marks, lakes by
blue washing, rivers by a double line, mountains by the usual
conventional curved lines, and to mark the area of occurrence
and production of the natural products by distinctive colors.
Methods of scaling and how to make a flat map of a curved
surface were reviewed, and each child traced his outline map
from one in an atlas. The finished maps were transferred to
cloth paper. A large map of the United States was also made
in the school yard.

In the meantime the children read at home Shaler's Story of
our Continent. They were especially interested in its author's
summary of the relation between living things and physical
environment. Each child then wrote a report of his work
after some class instruction in how to make each paragraph
carry the story along a few additional steps. At first many of
the class tried to write their reports by copying from references.
One report written in this way was read aloud and discussed
from the point of view of the audience, Group VI, for whom it
was intended. This discussion gave the class a new understand-
ing of what the reports might be, and they set about the work
of rewriting, with renewed interest. Two reports were rewrit-
ten three times. During the writing, reports were frequently
read aloud and criticized as to subject-matter and treatment.
At the closing session of the course the general physiographical
characteristics of North America were reviewed, and new de-
tails were given about parts of the country where members of
the class were to spend the summer.

The science work of the group, as that of all the school in
the spring, turned to the outdoors for illustrative materials and
excursions and as a setting for experimental work with living
things. A series of experiments on plant life was used. One

SPECIALIZED ACTIVITIES

hour a week was devoted to this laboratory work. The length
of time between meetings was too long. A constant review was
necessary, and the experiments failed for lack of attention.

During the year's course in what was fundamentally geologi-
cal science, there were at least two astronomical holidays. The
class spent the one occurring at the time of the spring solstice
in watching the tellurian. They got a vivid idea of what the
equinox meant and of the relation of the sun and earth during
the longest and shortest days of the year. The children were
reminded that in the northern winter the earth travels that
portion of its elliptical path which is nearest to the sun, and
that for this reason the winter of the northern hemisphere is
slightly warmer and about six days shorter than that in the
southern hemisphere, while the northern summer is slightly
cooler and about six days longer than the southern summer.
It was explained that this is due to the fact that when the earth's
distance to the sun is shortest (the northern winter or the
southern summer), the earth must move more swiftly along its
elliptical orbit in order that the space swept over may be the
same as that covered in any other interval of time. To illustrate
this the children drew ellipses with exaggerated eccentricities
by inserting the point of a pencil in a loop of string of which
the ends, fastened by pins, were the foci of the ellipse. They
were reminded of the fact (long familiar) that the water vapor
in the atmosphere retards the earth's loss of heat derived from
the sun. This is illustrated by frost on clear nights and a great
difference in temperature between day and night in high alti-
tudes. The intense cold of high altitudes was explained as due
to the fact that the rarefied atmosphere of the mountaintops
holds in its thin blanket less water vapor and thus allows the
earth's heat to escape more quickly.8

The year's program was carried through successfully with
the majority of the children in Group IX. There were in this
group, however, and in several of the older groups a number of
boys who were irked by the historical approach and who
seemed to require a shift in method. Their interests were not

« The second event was an eclipse, which was explained to the class and
discussed both before and after its occurrence.

214 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

in line with those of the rest of the children; their attention
was divided or entirely lacking; and their efforts, in accord
with their interest, either retarded or interfered with those of
the others. These boys were finally taken out of the class and
allowed to follow their own diverse and individual lines until
the general trend of their interests could be determined. This
interest proved to be along scientific lines closely related to
things the boys were making in the shop such as pile-drivers,
stands for their microscopes, heat engines, or the simple astro-
nomical or surveying and navigating instruments of the early
discoverers and inventors. As some of the boys had had the
science of Group VHI-a in the previous year and the others the
science of Group VIII-&., it was necessary to begin their work
together with a simple, general topic and gradually lead back
to their individual choices.

CORRELATING SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS

This topic was the measurement of time, day and night,
and the passage of the seasons. Starting with an ordinary clock
as the present instrument for the measurement of time, the
relation of the earth to the sun in its daily and yearly revolu-
tions was studied. The place of the earth in the solar system
and the relative distances of the planets were used as the basis
for number work. The earth's change in position with refer-
ence to the sun's rays as the causal factor in the varying length
of day and night and the changes of the seasons were worked
out in two ways: first by geometry, second by observation. For
the second, the boys made a series of daily observations of the
time of sunrise and sunset, checking by the times given in an
almanac. The first involved a good deal of geometrical con-
struction. The idea of the plane of the ecliptic and the constant
angle which the earth's axis maintains with reference to that
plane was developed. It took some time for the boys to realize
that the plane of the observer's horizon is perpendicular to a
line drawn to the center of the earth from the observer's stand-
point. The boundary line of that plane was then taken as the
starting plane for their measurement of the sun's altitude.

SPECIALIZED ACTIVITIES 215

When they had accomplished this and its diagrammatic repre-
sentation with much suggestion and direction, they were able
to construct two instruments of different types for the measure-
ment of the sun's altitude. One, like the old astrolade, was a
circle with an index hand at the center. The other, and usual
method, was by the measurement of the shadow of a per-
pendicular stick at noon. The making and the interpretation of
the readings of these instruments involved much geometrical
construction and the development of new measurement con-
cepts. For two months the time was equally divided between
practical construction and the making of geometrical diagrams
with the mathematics in their drawings. In measuring the sun's
altitude it was necessary to construct a perpendicular to a
line representing the observer's plane. Discussion brought out
that two lines are necessary to locate any plane. However, when
representing this on paper, the boys discovered that one line
would serve if the construction were kept in the plane of the
paper. They worked out independently at least four ways of
constructing a perpendicular. Incidental to this construction,
two or three discovered and used the construction of an angle
of sixty degrees, the bisection of an angle, the construction of
an angle equal to a given angle. They also developed the idea
that angles formed by any line cutting two parallel lines, i. e.,
similarly placed angles, are equal. No demonstration was at-
tempted. All these constructions were used in a final diagram
which represented the observer's plane, the plane of the equa-
tor, and a line representing the direction of the sun's rays at
the equinox. The final step in this construction was to get the
angle of a plane cutting a cylinder so that the shadow of the
axis of the cylinder might describe equal spaces over this plane
during the twenty-four hours of the sun's revolution. This
cylinder would then be cut by a plane whose angle would
represent any latitude, and this section would give the surface
of a sun-dial for that latitude. In order to understand the
problem and construct the cylinder, however, many geometri-
cal constructions were necessary. In the process the boys worked
out the following original propositions: the bisection of a line,
three methods of erecting a perpendicular, the construction

216 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

of parallel lines and angles, the bisection of an angle, the
method of finding the center of a circle, the construction of the
hexagon, and the use of terms in defining line, point, circle,
angle^ zenith,, latitude and declination. The interest and vigor
with which the boys worked out these problems was such that
for two weeks it seemed best to drop all other experimental
work.9

Each boy then constructed a cylinder on which he traced
twenty-four lines to represent the twenty-four hours of the
earth's revolution with axis parallel to the earth's axis. A
sun-dial for use in the latitude of Chicago was begun. This
problem required that the cylinder be inclined to make an
angle equal to the altitude of the polar star and then be cut by a
plane parallel to the horizontal plane. The intersections of
the hour lines of the cylinder with the parallel plane would
be the hour points of the sun-dial on March sist or September
2ist. On the sist of March the boys all took observations of the
sun's altitude. They used these to find the latitude of Chicago
and then attempted the last step of the problem, namely, the
construction of a plane cutting the cylinders at this angle. This
required more knowledge of geometrical construction than
they possessed; time was taken to work it out; and the sun-
dial was finally completed at the end of the spring quarter.
Owing to the crowding in the school building, the boys were
handicapped by the necessity of putting away their material
each night and by frequent losses. They met this problem by
asking if they might equip their group room in such a way that
each boy might have his own desk and thus be responsible for
his own material. Each week one boy assumed responsibility
for the apparatus in general use. This plan worked very well.
Fewer losses and accidents occurred. A greater respect for
school property as well as for each other's was evidenced after
they had purchased a portion of their own supplies.

A study of the various theories of the nebular hypothesis, of
the position of the fixed stars relative to the earth's yearly mo-
tion, and a brief summary of the theory of the comets, me-

9 The time spent on this geographical measurement amounted to about
an hour and a half a week for three quarters.

SPECIALIZED ACTIVITIES 217

teorites, and the character of the larger planets were correlative
with this work on intuitional geometric construction. The boys
were much interested in parts of a lecture given by Mr.
Chamberlain at the University, and a few attended a lecture
by Sir Robert Ball. Many of the technical terms were beyond
their understanding, but they were able to give a fairly good
account of Mr. Chamberlain's meteoric theory and the forma-
tion of the continents and ocean basins.

The plan had been to follow the review of the nebular hy-
pothesis with regular work that the rest of Group IX had been
doing on the geological history of the North American con-
tinent. The experimental science correlative with this was to
have illustrated the formation of sedimentary rocks. However,
these boys' vivid interest in their first taste of astronomy and
the concentrated attention given the geometrical construction
seemed to make it worth while to go on with this work. The
main interest was in the great stretches of time involved, the
conceptions of motion and space. They also showed an appreci-
ation of the orderly sequence involved in what had before
seemed to them very irregular phenomena.

The boys' grasp of the use of geometrical construction in
their experimental attempts to reconstruct instruments of
measurement which had been of such untold value to men il-
lustrates the educational import of the experimental method.
Knowledge or skill that is tested and found useful is slipped
into the sequence, the context, the category where it logically
belongs. It, therefore, fits into the intellectual pattern and fuses
into the emotional satisfactions of active experience which
flows on with more energy because of it.

This work with a difficult group of boys also illustrates the
necessity of great care and insight on the teacher's part in the
choice of subject-matter and the use of methods that are in
accord with the individualized interests and varying abilities
and attitudes of children. In summarizing the results of this
experimental course in terms of the development of its indi-
vidual members, the report comments: Three out of this group
of ten needed constant assistance in their experimental work
with the gases and liquids and with the construction of the

218 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

pump, syphon, etc. Three had a good grasp of what they
wanted to do, but little skill in carrying it out, and four were
able to make an intelligent plan and carry it through without
suggestions. The latter also were resourceful in meeting dif-
ficulties encountered in the material or the process.

SUMMARY

A change of attitude in the approach to scientific facts and
in his use of scientific method is noticeable in the average child
of this age, and a corresponding change in the presentation of
subject-matter is essential. At the end of his twelfth year a
child in Group IX was familiar, in a general way, with many
aspects of scientific knowledge, for he had experimented and
observed to a certain extent in many of its fields, in horticul-
ture, ecology and zoology, in geology, physiography, as-
tronomy, and physical and commercial geography, in physics
and chemistry, biology and physiology. All this study and all
these experiments had been in connection with activities in
social life; hence few, if any, of these facts discovered and
learned had been dislocated from their logical places in ex-
perience. A child in this school constantly saw natural facts or
forces in relation to actual situations where they worked or
functioned usefully. In consequence his idea of a fact or a force
was often clothed, so to speak, with a concrete dress of use. Just
as their study of social life— its occupations and relationships-
had made them at ease in a world of men, so familiarity with
beginnings of natural law and scientific method made them
unafraid and able to follow the gleam of native curiosity-
grown in many cases to an eager and intelligent interest. This
interest was gradually extending itself to causes and farther
objectives. Coupled with an increased ability to abstract natu-
ral fact, material, or theory from its place in experience, to
handle it, to experiment with it, to analyze it, and to formulate
statements or principles with regard to it, the child's thought
began to play around a problem, just because it was a problem,
to hypothecate premises with regard to it, and to attempt to
prove by experiment the truth or falsity of these premises.

SPECIALIZED ACTIVITIES 219

Some of these children had almost caught up with the adult
point of view. They were beginning to see science as knowledge
logically arranged (or possible of such arrangement) for the
purpose of searching out more knowledge. This was not true
by any means of all, nor of some all of the time. Such insight
came irregularly and most often at the heels of eager interest;
it often took flight as die result of dismal failure in technique.

This same attitude was apparent and had extended itself to
a method of proceeding in all the forms of activities of this
period. In history, the average child of this group had a con-
crete background and an intellectual appreciation of social
life, which enabled him to follow political history with a
degree of interest and to understand something of the con-
tribution that various civilizations have made to the sum total
of the present day. He was able to stand an increased emphasis
on the analysis of language forms, whether English or foreign,
and could find the synthetic use of such analysis in his own
efforts at composition. In his number work, the same attitude
was shown in the ability to formulate for himself definitions
of numerical processes such as ratio and proportion and to
state the method used in solving a problem. In music, a genu-
ine desire to compose a song that expressed the highest musical
consciousness of the group was proved by the slow critical work
of an entire quarter. In art, he was ready for a conscious at-
tention to esthetic elements. He was led to think of art as ap-
pealing to the sense of beauty and, in his own work, to regard
beautiful arrangement as well as the mere telling of a story.
He could in some measure appreciate that difference in effect
is accomplished by difference in arrangement of line, mass,
and color, and his critical sense was cultivated and exercised
by study of classic examples of different effects gained by
various methods and by his own attempts to sketch from
memory some chosen painting. At the end of this year these
children had a start in their own use of knowledge and search
for it, and some skill in using the method of experimental re-
search.

CHAPTER XII

EXPERIMENTS IN SPECIALIZED
ACTIVITIES

GROUP x (AGE THIRTEEN)

programs for the older children of the school, and in
particular for Groups XI and XII, were highly experimental in
character. The life of the experiment was too short to revise
these tentative beginnings for the close of the elementary and
the beginning of the secondary periods. The worth of the re-
sults, therefore, lies in what they suggest for other experimen-
tation of a similar kind, rather than in what they prove or
disprove.

REVIEW OF THE COLONIAL PERIOD

The average number in Group X was ten.1 Most had been
in the school since its beginning which materially helped the
successful accomplishment of the program. The centralizing
factor in the work, aside from club activities, was a daily dis-
cussion of current events. Young as they were, these children
had an understanding of how social life is conditioned by and
organized around the industrial life of a people and, in turn,
sets the trend of the subsequent type of governmental policy
and political thought.2 They, therefore, had gained a com-
prehensive viewpoint which enabled them, at thirteen, to
cover the early colonial period of United States history far

1 Teacher, Georgia G. Bacon.

2 "Government was presented not as a static thing, but as an organization
for the regulation of the industrial and social life of a people, changing
to meet changing needs/* George F. Bacon, "History," Elementary School
Record, Vol. i, No. 8.

220

SPECIALIZED ACTIVITIES 221

more quickly and intelligently than they had in their first
study two years before. They were able to picture the various
types of social life, the special significance of each colony, and
the particular contribution which each made to the whole
country's history. A number of topics on different aspects of
a situation or period were suggested. Each one in the group
read and reported on a subject of his own choice. The chil-
dren were thus encouraged to make their own investigations;
at the same time they were directed in their reading and in
the organization of their material. A large number of books
were listed, and each child was urged to seek out his own
sources and to get the help of parents and friends in writing
up his topics. The questions and topics given were of such a
nature as to lead them to make use of their experience in
thinking out the answers. To gather together what they had
learned, a general outline was made of important events, with
sub-groupings for the subordinate. This outline was used by
each child in writing his own report. This was not a memory
test, but a logical arrangement of those facts which might be
useful. Books were freely consulted during the writing.

With the completion of the first quarter's work in history,
the children had come in their continued story of the stream of
time and the accomplishments of man, close to their own
period and conditions of living. The text of the story was
always the way different groups of people had dealt with, used,
and subdued their environment, how they had wrung from
it the means for its further subduing and more adequate
ministering to their rapidly increasing needs. In following the
details of this oft repeated story, these children saw that as
man's needs increased in number and kind, so did his apprecia-
tion of the value of satisfied senses, of convenience, of comfort,
of beauty deepen. Each child saw and often reenacted the part
that activity played in all this moving and dynamic drama.
Ideas became deeds and brought about results that changed
current ways of living and gave incentive to a further quest.
When the mental image of the bow and arrow first found
form and use and brought down food or the beast of prey from
afar, it made of living a less tortured thing and brought satis-

222 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

faction to appetite, release from fear, renewed confidence in
ability, and increased desire for the struggle. These children,
sailing their tiny ships along the Mediterranean coast, realized
the release to sail fearlessly into the wide ocean brought by
the discovery of the compass. Into the small rivulets of each
child's experience, therefore, flowed these tricklings from the
great stream of human endeavor, the doings of man, his in-
ventions, his discoveries, his accomplishments in the physical
world, his method of thinking, and the growing fabric of his
social relationship. Impelled to action by the same funda-
mental desire to express, and again to re-express, to invent and
then to re-invent, to do once and re-do under the spell of the
reward of ever better doing, these children of the present fol-
lowed the fast moving life-stream of the past. Through his
power of imaginative thinking, each child became, to a greater
or lesser extent, one of its currents and was swept into and
carried on to a more sympathetic understanding of the dy-
namic story of the race. Little by little the idea was born that
the use of thinking is to manage experience. This idea, through
use of it, grew into a consciously formulated principle that
guided daily activities with the result that out of repeated
successes and failures these children gained the ability to think
logically and to the point, to plan, and, in varying degree, to
decide judiciously and execute effectively. Many of them, con-
fronted by a dividing of the ways, an ambiguous situation
presenting a dilemma or proposing an alternative, were less
and less often disposed to conclude that the solution or deci-
sion was beyond them. Both as individuals and as a group they
recognized that a forked-road situation required thinking and
were willing to consider before leaping into action. Steadied
and inspired by the desire to find the best way out, they were
ready to discuss a plan and the steps of a plan. In case of failure
they were not so easily discouraged as most children, for they
generally had an alternative, or by eliminating the factor
which might have caused failure, could thus revise the original
plan and bring it to a successful completion.

At thirteen years, therefore, these children, as a result of
experience, were able in some measure to abstract facts for

SPECIALIZED ACTIVITIES 223

use in activity, to generalize on the basis of repeated use of
these facts, and to formulate principles on the strength of
substantiated generalizations. In consequence, their viewpoint
was gradually changing, particularly in the more extended
fields of their experience, from the psychological approach of
the learner or mere observer of facts to the logical one of the
adult, who observes to an end and classifies what he has ob-
served writh the purpose of its further use. For the most part
each child began to see the value to him of reviews, of sum-
maries, of the analysis of a problem or a situation, of the clas-
sification of facts into their categories, or the logical arrange-
ment of knowledge to facilitate its further use in any field of
activity. This appreciation wras shown in various ways, for
example: the agenda of their club meeting or program for
assembly was prepared so that it had logical sequence. This
was true too of the preparation of the points of a debate or
assembly paper, or the arrangement of the data of an experi-
ment.

Out of the increasing ability to observe, to analyze, and to
select that which might be adapted to use, emerged a growing
sense of power in self-expression, of ability to link observed
facts in new combinations or to fashion raw materials into the
more finished product that satisfied the growing and increas-
ingly critical mental concept. This budding desire to put
things together after taking them apart and the appreciation
that the purpose of analysis is a re-synthesis which may be
better than the former whole marked a new stage of growth.
Power to conceive, to evaluate, and skill to execute were indi-
cations of the birth of individual creative power. The hereto-
fore intensely satisfying story of what man had done paled
before the exciting and fascinating thing that each boy or girl
felt he might do. For each the present, his own experiments, his
work in shop or studio, his own social position in his class, his
club, his school, his family, became of paramount importance.
The study of history became far less important than the mak-
ing of his own history. His own activities, and in particular
those which had become particularly significant and useful be-
cause of the consequences they had accomplished, took on a

THE DEWEY SCHOOL

continuous character with a growing purpose. Because of the
social character of the school, the distinctive capacity of each
child found an outlet through his preferred activity. This
individual expression often proved of service to his group or
to the school. Because of the unique nature of the school's or-
ganization, these children had greater opportunity than most,
not only to find out what each liked best or was fitted to do,
but, so far as possible, opportunity to do it. They, therefore,
earlier than most children, learned what their preferred oc-
cupations were and received training for them by training in
them. Their individual needs and interests were the clues,
the sign-posts, that constantly indicated growing capacity and
special aptitude.

PHOTOGRAPHY, THE BASIS OF SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITY

One of the vital interests of Group X was photography.
As Group IX they had made pin-hole cameras in the shop and
were anxious to perfect these and go on to the actual taking,
development, and printing of pictures. Many of them had car-
ried on their own experiments during the summer and were all
ready, therefore, so far as interest went, to grapple with the
study of light, already planned for their autumn program.

In their work on the growth of North America, the previous
year, this group had reviewed and summarized the various
theories of the earth's formation, its position in the solar sys-
tem in relation to climatic conditions, and the main physical
forces which have formed and are still forming the continent of
North America. It was considered highly important to em-
phasize the dynamic quality of this study in order that the
child might understand the present as but a stage in a long
series of changes and realize a link to future ones, and that the
physical (and social) forces, which acted in the past to bring
about these changes, act still.

In this second imaginative remaking of a continent, much
explanation is necessary to secure typical experiences of such
things as the action of a gas on a solid, the solution of solids
and the change by such action in water, the crystallization of

SPECIALIZED ACTIVITIES 225

the solid from that solution, the solution of a gas in a liquid,
and the conditions which determine that solution. These ex-
periments were illustrations that unlocked the secret meaning
of the processes that formed the earth. They were also planned
to demonstrate some present use of the material involved.

Through a physiographic first-hand study of local conditions
near Chicago the children had gained a series of mental pictures
of the action of glaciers, rivers, waves, and the formation of
sand dunes. The outstanding characteristics of the chief evolu-
tionary types of plant and animal life were restated. During
the year the work was still further differentiated along the physi-
cal and biological aspects. Emphasis was successively laid on
special forms of energy, gravity, electricity, heat, in relation to
their geological study. On the biological side, particular con-
sideration was given to the study of function. This again related
to a special consideration of the respiratory system and digestive
tract in relation to types of food and methods of preparation.
A natural transition had thus been made by means of practical
or applied science to a more technical study of biology and
physics. The interest in photography also made this transition
a natural one from the children's point of view.

Group X's work in science 3 during the first quarter, there-
fore, related itself to a use of the camera and a study of its
parts, the meaning of laws of focusing and of perspective. Other
instruments such as the microscope, telescope, the magic lantern,
and the primitive methods of signaling by means of mirrors
were included in the course. Many excursions were made to
the University laboratory to see perfected instruments, such as
the interferometer and spectroscope, for demonstrating what
they could only roughly approximate or estimate. This connec-
tion with the University and adults who were studying and
working on the same problems steadied and heightened the
children's appreciation of the importance and reality of their

s Arthur Taber Jones, a student of Professor A, A. Michelson's. Mr. Jones
came each day fresh from his own laboratory study and was unusually
successful in his experiment of recalling the course of the college laboratory
so that children were able to carry on simplified experiments demonstrating
the same principles.

226 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

work. The actual work was a series of experiments on light,
bringing out the principles involved in the construction of an
image in a convex lens. The children began by working out
the laws which govern the size of a shadow. Two sets of experi-
ments were carried out which required careful work and covered
a number of periods. At their close, the children were ready for
the construction of an image in a convex lens. This was worked
out four times with dimensions given by the teacher.4 Some
work in reflection was also undertaken, the relation between
the complements of the angles of incidence and reflection being
worked out by a diagram. Some part of the class periods was
given to a discussion of instruments in which lenses are used.
The class made out lists of all the instruments they could think
of that used lenses, and had some fifteen to talk about. The
one of greatest interest was probably the spectroscope. The
group visited Ryerson Physical Laboratory and saw a spectro-
scope and a few spectra.

The children were then ready for simple photography. In
preparation they had been making pin-hole cameras in the
shop and frames to form a dark room. As a first experiment, a
piece of leather was moistened with a solution of silver nitrate,
as Thomas Wedgewood did. A design in paper was then pinned
on the leather and the whole exposed to the light. After a time
it was noticed that the part of the leather not covered by the
paper had darkened considerably, while that covered was not
noticeably darker than when the paper was put on.

A brief description of the daguerreotype followed, and the
work of Fox Talbot was taken up. For illustration by experi-
ment, some silver chloride was precipitated from a solution of
sodium chloride by pouring into it a solution of silver nitrate.
The precipitated silver chloride was then spread on a paper
in the light and darkened rather rapidly. The mechanism of
different kinds of cameras and the uses of the parts were studied,

* The results of individual children agreed about as closely as could be
expected. A comment is made that the children evidently enjoy this kind
of work. One of them exclaimed the other day in a tone of extreme gladness
and importance, "Oh, Mr. Jones, we've made a discovery."

SPECIALIZED ACTIVITIES 227

but any further work in the development of pictures was made
impossible because there was no dark room. Even space for the
construction of one was lacking. Interest in practical photog-
raphy for the time being, therefore, waned, and the course was
discontinued until later in the year.

The science for the winter quarter was a continuation of the
study of light, emphasizing the history of the various scientific
theories as to its nature. The children first reviewed and stated
the four conditions necessary for the sight of an object: (i) the
object must be present and within range of the eye; (2) the eye
must be directed toward the object; (3) there must be no opaque
body between the eye and the object; (4) light must be present.

The various theories of the ancient Greeks and the corpuscu-
lar theory of the sixteenth century were then stated. Each of
these was tested by the four conditions listed above. The wave
theory was considered, and the objections to it discussed. The
action of waves of light was roughly illustrated by the vibra-
tions of a piece of rubber tubing. Experiments with the tuning
fork and with vibrating strings brought out the principle of
interference. The use of the interferometer was explained, and
a study of the spectrum and the spectroscope followed. The
composition of white light wras demonstrated by experiment
The relation of the rate of vibration to tension and length was
brought out by the use of the rubber tubing. A brief study of
spectrum analysis and of the recent discoveries made by its
use was the final work before writing up the record of the
quarter. The group all saw that by means of the solar spectrum
some idea has been gained of the constitution and temperature
of the sun. In view of the prevalent skepticism about the
capacity of children of this age to understand such a science
course as the above, it must be borne in mind that these children
had had five years of experience in this kind of schooling. This
meant five years of training in experimental method and prac-
tices. Their first attempt in the abstractions necessary in the
scientific treatment of their environment had been made four
years before when they had learned general scientific principles
through the use of what they themselves saw happening around

228 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

them. They then related this to their previous incursions into
geology and thus linked their experiences in the two fields of
physiography and geology.

In the spring the children again took up the study of botany,
beginning with a review of their knowledge of the functions
of leaves. The following facts were formulated: leaves receive
light and give off water; they absorb and give off carbon dioxide.
Seeds of different kinds were planted in order to have a variety
of plants for study. They then began some experiments to show
the effect of exposure to light on the amount of starch found
in the leaves. Leaves of a growing plant were protected from
light by thin pieces of cork fastened above and below, and
when it was found that the chlorophyl had noticeably decreased,
the part of the leaf which had been protected was boiled in
alcohol to remove the chlorophyl and then tested with iodine.
No starch was found, and the children concluded that light is
necessary to its formation. Another experiment had for its ob-
ject a comparison of the rate of evaporation from the upper
with that from the under side of leaves, and that during the day
with that at night. The experiments were supplemented by
correlated reading. A study of the parts of flowers in relation
to function was also included in the course, using the iris, the
nasturtium, and the wild mustard blossoms.

Toward the close of the fall quarter the demands of the very
active Camera Club for a dark room grew loud and insistent.
Lack of space in the house at Ellis Avenue, which two years
before had seemed so large and commodious, was cramping and
checking this and other of the rapidly growing interests of
the older children, specializing, as many of them were, along
lines which called for new equipment and space for individual
experimenting.

THE CLUB-HOUSE PROJECT

In response to these many developing angles of interest a
number of social organizations had sprung up. The most active
enterprise was a Dewey Club for discussion and debate. This
group, like the Camera Club and all the others, was sadly
put to it for quarters. There was no spot which they could call

SPECIALIZED ACTIVITIES 2*9

their own, where their meetings could be free from interruption
and under their own control. Out of the actual, pressing, and
felt need of the children the idea of the club-house was born—
an actual house planned, built, and furnished by themselves.
The two clubs joined forces, discussed the idea, consulted with
the adults, and decided that the erection of a club-house was a
feasible plan. Committees on architecture, building, sanitation,
ways and means, and interior decoration were formed, each with
a head chosen because of experience in directing affairs. The
site for the building was chosen under the guidance of the
teachers in the different departments; plans were made and
the cost estimated. A scheme for decoration was worked out,
designs for furniture made. The choice of a location was
prefaced by a study of the formation of soil, the conditions of
drainage, climate, exposure to light or wind, which must be
taken into account in building a house. The contrast between
city and country requirements was noted Each member of the
group was afterwards asked to draw a plan for the house, keep
ing all the above points in mind.

The choice of the site of the house in relation to the type of
foundation was extended into a study of the relation of material
and range of soil to house sites in general. This led to a larger
consideration of the character of Chicago city sites. The im-
portance to city building of a knowledge of its underlying
geological formation in its effect on drainage was the point of
departure for the subsequent study of the physiography of the
region. This study reviewed the physical geography of Chicago
and the city's unique trading situation in the Great Lakes,
its drainage problem, the building of the canal. The course
in local physiography and geography consisted almost entirely
of field trips under a teacher trained at the University of Chi-
cago by Professor Rollin D. Salisbury. These field trips were
followed by write-ups of notes and class discussions. Maps were
drawn to illustrate the formation of the great lakes and the
St. Lawrence Valley by the retreating glaciers. The whole course
was characterized recently by one of its members as one of the
most interesting studies he had ever had.
In the meantime the children's own problem of a club-house

230 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

site had related Itself through skilfully directed discussion to
large and interesting facts, such as the difficulties engineers had
met in constructing the foundation piers of the huge downtown
buildings and the direct relation of well drained building sites
to health and security. The details of what constitute sanitary
conditions, such as proper ventilation to prevent dampness,
were worked out by the class. Similarly, the size and proportion
of the windows, the relation of the amount of light admitted
to health, proportions and proper placing of the fireplace so
that it was both pleasing and convenient, all these presented no
inconsiderable problems.5 Moreover, because of the diminutive
size of the building, small errors would be important, which
in turn magnified the need of accurate measurement and work-
manship.

In the studio, discussion went on as to the style of architecture
that would be suitable. This was the occasion for a brief study
of architecture and the origin of the various familiar types.
Among other things the children found that Greece and Egypt
were the homes of the lintel, Rome of the round arch, and
Europe of the pointed arch of Gothic and Saracenic architec-
ture. The style which they at last selected for their club-house
was "just as colonial as we can make it." They discussed house
decorations and furnishings and decided that only the beauti-
ful and the useful have any excuse for existence. The qualities
judged necessary for use were strength, durability, and firmness
of material; for beauty, form, color, quality of material, and
consistent style. This study included the sketching and modeling
of antique buildings, the study of pictures, and trips to the
Field Museum. In addition, outdoor sketching as a basis for
the study of perspective was carried on through the spring
quarter.

The interior decoration, like the problem of the fireplace and
windows, was a subject of many exciting questions and discus-
sions with the art and textile teachers. Mistakes were often
made and were permitted. When against the advice of the
elders, the committee chose a stain for the walls which proved

s A mason was secured to help with the fireplace on the advice of the
parents in order that all risk of fire from a defective flue might be avoided.

SPECIALIZED ACTIVITIES 231

too dark for a small room, the problems of curtains and cushions
became serious, for much color was necessary to brighten and
lighten the general effect.

A considerable amount of the actual construction of the
little house was accomplished by the children with no outside
help. Work proceeded rather slowly, however, for Group X
only included twelve members. The club-house, moreover, was
their own pet project, and they jealously guarded the privilege
of work upon it. Pressure of their other classes left only a small
amount of school time for the work, so much 8 was done in the
children's free time at noons and after school. Complications
also arose. The Camera Club insisted upon a stairway to the
attic, which was their dark room. This complicated the interior
construction. The children, however, met this problem with
some help, careful planning, and allotment of tasks according
to interest and ability. No part of the interior finishing was at-
tempted until working drawings had been completed. This
was true also of each piece of furniture constructed. Many of
these drawings were made in the studio under constant direc-
tion. Those responsible for them were held to an astonishing
degree of accuracy in order to avoid having a drawing turned
back by the carpenters with sharp criticism couched in no un-
certain terms. The report indicates that on the completion of
the working drawings of the stairway, the front door, the
window trim, and interior finish, the children so thoroughly
understood what was to be done that in the shop all the dif-
ferent structural parts of the stairway were taken charge of
by the girls in the class, each being responsible for the part
selected. The boys assumed responsibility for the front door,
cut the stock, and on its completion considered the difficulties
which would be met when they put on the hinges and hung the
door. On the stairway, the different structural parts such as the
stringers were carefully marked out to show the proper size of
treads and risers, and the upper and lower ends labeled to make
the proper connections with the adjoining parts, whether the
first part, the landing, or the second story floor. The four

* Preparation for college board examinations had also begun.

THE DEWEY SCHOOL

stringers were all nicely sawed from 2" x 12" planks and put up.
The joists, posts, and framework of the two landings were then
prepared, and work commenced on the treads and risers. All
the pieces and parts were made in the shop by individuals work-
ing from the drawings and were then assembled in the club-
house by the entire class. Covering the ceiling and walls with
flooring was comparatively quick work. Finishing the mantel
piece with shellac, installing the trim of doors and windows
and a bric-a-brac shelf on brackets extending around the room,
made the house ready to receive the furniture, which the chil-
dren were anxious to plan and make. All the children were
increasingly enthusiastic and lent their best efforts as they saw
the vision of the completed building. There were times, of
course, when interest waned, as with the shingling of the roof.
This work, involving much drudgery in the hot sun, was a
never-ending job. At last, emulating Tom Sawyer, the next
lower class was invited to assist, and in one noon hour, that
which had been gapping to the skies for several weeks was fin-
ished with the aid of these younger brothers and sisters.

As the work went on, Group X realized that what they had
undertaken was beyond their own powers to accomplish, and lit-
tle by little the whole school was drawn into cooperative effort
to finish the building. There was need of careful suggestion
and direction by the teachers, both to avoid too much and too
little guidance and also of much team-work by the various
departments of the school.7 This enterprise was the most thor-
oughly considered one ever undertaken in the school. Because
of its purpose, to provide a home for their own clubs and in-
terests, it drew together many groups and ages and performed
a distinctly ethical and social service. It ironed out many evi-

7 Frank Ball, head of the Manual Training Department, was largely re-
sponsible for the successful management of the project which was finally
carried to conclusion under the sympathetic direction of Mr. N. and
Mr. G. Fowler. Clinton S. Osborn (mathematics) in cooperation with Lil-
lian Cushman directed the plans and helped the children select their
materials and make out their specifications. Althea Harmer (Home Eco-
nomics) directed the work of choosing the site and the course in sanitation
that followed, and Harry O. Gillett, its further extension into a course in
geology and physiography of the region. The art and textile studios were
centers of activity as has been indicated.

GIRLS OF GROUP X WORKING ON THE CLUB-HOUSE

THE FINISHED CLUB-HOUSE IN USE

SPECIALIZED ACTIVITIES 233

dences of an unsocial and cliquish spirit which had begun to
appear in the club movement. As the children came to realize
the possibilities afforded by the cooperation of numbers, this
spirit changed from an exclusive to an inclusive one. The boys
busy on the benches and the girls working on the cushions were
brought together by a common purpose as they had not been
for more than a year. The original club, meanwhile, took on a
departmental character, with sections devoted to photography,
botany, debating, and science, and was named the Educational
Club. Members were chosen from the lower groups, and various
committees were appointed, not on the basis of personal prefer-
ence but of fitness for responsibilities. Another value of the
project was that the children made contacts with a wide variety
of professional people whom they consulted on their problems
or from whom they purchased supplies.8 An hour was spent
with one of the parents in discussing parliamentary law in
order to learn how to conduct a meeting on house member-
ship. The financial organization of the club caused frequent
anxious hours, for a system of dues and fines had been in-
stalled which proved far too complicated.

The project also furnished many kinds of activities, and ex-
cept where it was essential to work as a group, each child was
free to choose his sort of contribution. To the great delight of
all, the little building was finished and furnished in the latter
part of the last year of the school. The clubs used it, but for all
too brief a time, as the next year found the children at the Uni-
versity High School, some distance away from the site of the
old Laboratory School and their club-house.

THE STUDY OF CURRENT EVENTS

In the meantime, lest the groups should grow too self-
centered in their fascinating project, it was deemed wise for
them to spend some time on current events. The war in South
Africa, the government of Porto Rico, and the transcontinental

s The educational value of purchasing and accounting was not utilized
as fully as it might have been, owing to pressure of time and distance from
source of supplies.

234 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

railways were among the topics discussed. Their comment upon
the state of affairs in Porto Rico was to the effect that if Eng-
land had treated the American colonies as well as we have
treated Porto Rico and taxed them only until they were able
to take care of themselves, there might have been no Revolu-
tion.

Before taking up the actual progress of the transcontinental
railway, the class looked the map over and discussed feasible
plans. There was great discussion as to whether it would be
better to build a bridge over the Strait of Gibraltar or to tunnel
underneath, but the latter plan finally carried the day. They
were then told of the plan which had actually been made for
such an enterprise. In discussing the railway across China, the
children were greatly impressed with the opposition shown by
China to the advance of western civilization and asked what
China had ever done to benefit the world. One of the children
said in this discussion: "Nations are just like people: first they
are little, then they grow big and die, and then another nation
comes along and takes up what they have done and goes on
with it."

SUMMARY

During this year of intense activity the usual attention was
given to an increasing use of language. The aim was to inculcate
an increasing respect for language symbols as a means for self-
expression and for description of individual and joint under-
takings. Such use of language brought a deepening realization
of the meaning of daily experience in both its individual and
social aspects. It involved a voluntary search for new words
wherewith to describe the experiment, the excursion, the proc-
ess, or construction. It extended the meaning of present living
and linked it to the doings, the sayings, the happenings, dis-
coveries, inventions, formulations, verbal or written expres-
sions of persons of other times and remote places. '

The school was a miniature social group where study and
growth were incident to shared activity. Its playgrounds, shops,
work rooms and laboratories not only directed the natural active
tendencies of these young people but work in them involved

SPECIALIZED ACTIVITIES 235

intercourse, communication, and cooperation. Language was
constantly used to give or get ideas about joint work, and the
children quite naturally came to regard the right descriptive
words as the best means of getting or giving social direction
to a joint endeavor. Their vocabulary, therefore, was built up
in conjunction with their use of the physical means. Mental
concepts included thing or process and word or words to de-
scribe each. The children, therefore, could talk or write of what
they did with comparative ease and could read of what others
had accomplished along similar lines with more comprehension
than most children of this age. Most important of all, as a re-
sult of having shared constantly in joint undertakings, the
children possessed the concrete quality of mind that enabled
them to understand things in terms of the use made of them.
Furthermore, their mental attitudes were consistently social.
They understood things in terms of the use to which they were
turned in joint or shared situations. They consequently knew
how to think, to plan, to act as a group, and there were among
them those who had grown into an efficient method of con-
trolling and directing group action by their ready statement of
plans or measures.

There were some in the group who wished to read to the
school assembly what they had written with the expression
that would convey their thought more accurately. They were
interested in studying the technique of good reading. The
group decided that in order to read well one must have a clear
mental picture of what is read. The poem of Miles Standish
was chosen.9 They found that the reading voice has a scale and
tone color, that a sentence has rhythmical qualities, and, above
all, that self-directed breath is the foundation of vocal expres-
sion. They also saw that physical position is requisite to secure
this breathing. At the close of the course each child asked for
a poem with which he could tell his own story his own way, and
special voice work with individual children was undertaken.

In music, these children began a study of harmony. The
formal intellectual work went on harmoniously, but in song

» Course given by Minerva Butlin.

236 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

singing and song writing, the boys were very self-conscious. The
group finally succeeded in writing a two-part song which they
notated upon the board and copied upon tablets, but which
they regarded so critically and with so little satisfaction that
it was difficult to induce them to sing it before the school chorus,
as was the usual custom. The tone of the group was strained
and unsatisfactory through the entire quarter.

The group studied algebra and arithmetic, emphasis being
laid on the fact that algebra is only generalized arithmetic.10
Laws were developed and formulated by the children as they
went along. Special emphasis was laid on the study of ratio
and proportion, each child working out his own statement of
both. The number work was used extensively in the shop for
the working drawings of the club-house or in estimating ex-
penses and calculating dues.

Although there were some children in this group whose
progress in the traditional school studies was retarded, on the
whole their school experience fully demonstrated that the more
direct modes of activity present plenty of opportunities and
occasions for the necessary use of reading, writing, spelling,
and number work. It is repeated at the risk of tiresome reitera-
tion that these things were introduced, not as isolated studies,
but as organic outgrowths of the child's experience. The ad-
ditional vitality and meaning which these studies thus secured
made possible a considerable reduction of the time usually
given to them. The use of tool subjects, especially by the older
children, whether in reading, calculation, or composition, was
more intelligent and less mechanical, more active and less
passively receptive, and gave more evidence of increasing power
than is usual with children of thirteen.

10 Course taught by Clinton S. Osborn. One quarter Anne Moore taught
logarithms and angle measurement, as they were needed in the work on
focus.

CHAPTER XIII

EXPERIMENTS IN SPECIALIZED
ACTIVITIES

GROUP xi (AGE FOURTEEN TO FIFTEEN)

AN a developing experiment such as that of the school, the
work of the oldest children is of necessity highly exploratory
and tentative in character. Because of the school's early demise
also, many of the courses for this age were repeated but once,
or at the most twice. An account of them is, therefore, only
suggestive of a way in which the interests and activities of the
elementary stage may be guided into the deviating paths of
the more specialized interests and subject-matter of the second-
ary period.

Careful study of the school's brief and very condensed records
during the year 1901-1902 seems to indicate that in this year
the two older groups were united into one. This was true for
at least certain of their studies. The oldest members of this
united group (who normally would have been classified as
Group XII) were given special tutoring and review courses
in preparation for their college board examinations, which
were complicating the program. Had the group consisted solely
of those who had followed the consecutively developing pro-
gram of the school, and had it not been hampered by the de-
mands of college entrance examinations, the various courses
for the oldest children doubtless would have followed a far
different and more logical plan, hints of which appear in the
records. Roman history would have been studied from the
point of view of the political state; the history of industry and
of social groupings would have been developed; and more of
the specialized sciences gradually would have found their places

238 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

in the curriculum. As it was, the theoretical plan for the oldest
children was greatly altered by circumstances. There was also
lack of space and of proper laboratories and equipment for
older children. Many of these difficulties were swept away in
the following year when the Laboratory School, for one year,
became a part of the School of Education, and moved into its
beautiful new building. Records of the work of that year
(1902-1903), however, were not available; hence the history of
the school ends with the records of Group XL1

THE WORK OF THE FALL QUARTER

For two years the course in general science for these children
had been separated into its physiographical and biological as-
pects. The year before the children had continued the study
of the various forms of energy with special emphasis on light.
This course had included a fundamental consideration of vari-
ous theories of energy and had been in the nature of an intro-
duction to the technical study of physics, which would soon
enter the program of those preparing for college entrance ex-
aminations. The science course3 planned for Group XI was
a continued and more detailed consideration of their earlier
study of existing types of animal life. This was constantly re-
lated to the evolutionary processes touched upon in the geologi-
cal study of North America the preceding year. It was char-
acterized by more laboratory work and outdoor excursions
than usually mark a study of biology in the secondary period.
The aim was to preserve the spirit of individual investigation
and rediscovery that had characterized the children's scientific
work from the beginning.

The study of mathematics also became more highly spe-
cialized. The work in algebra included involution, evolution,
the theory of exponents, and operations involving radical
quantities. In geometry, each member of the group worked out,
for the most part independently, from twenty to thirty proposi-
tions and exercises and wrote up his demonstrations with a

1 Group teacher, Alice C. Dewey.

2 Course given by George Garrey, University of Chicago.

SPECIALIZED ACTIVITIES 239

varying degree of care. In addition to that of clarifying the
children's fundamental mathematical ideas, three ulterior pur-
poses were kept in view by the teacher of this course: to train
each individual into the highest degree of independence and
perseverance in attacking new and difficult work, to aid him
in developing a clear concept of what constitutes a geometrical
demonstration, to attain clear, definite, and concise expression.

THE WORK OF THE WINTER QUARTER

In the second quarter the pupils used Will's Essentials of
Geometry as the basis of their work and were able to work
more rapidly than when they had had to make constructions
as well as work out demonstrations from dictated exercises.
The propositions of Book I and many other related exercises
were covered—in all about one hundred. In order to have time
to finish the desired work in algebra, geometry was dis-
continued in May without reviewing the work done. The
remainder of the quarter was spent in the study of radical equa-
tions, quadratic equations, the theory of quadratics, and prob-
lems involving quadratics. Although all the work usually pre-
scribed for college entrance was taken up, only a few of the
group completed the course in a satisfactory way. Some of them
were hampered by lack of a ready command of fundamental
principles and processes. Others did not put sufficient time
on study to acquire familiarity with and ready application of
the principles. The work of three was highly satisfactory, but
even these needed a month of review before taking college
examinations. It was felt that other members of the group would
require at least another quarter's work on the important and
more technical parts of the subject.3

The work in history was also more specialized than in previ-
ous years. Six years' study of social living the world over, as well

s "It is possible a mistake was made in trying to carry both algebra and
geometry together during this year. With only three hours, or less, of class-
room work and a limited amount of home study, some of the group failed
to keep up the necessary amount of momentum to carry two such subjects
satisfactorily." Clinton S. Osborn, teacher.

s>4o THE DEWEY SCHOOL

as that of their own present, had more or less adequately pre-
pared these children to appreciate a study of certain thoroughly
differentiated and, so to speak, peculiar types of social life. It
was hoped that on the basis of their rather thorough knowledge
of both the principles and facts of social life they would be able
to discover for themselves the special significance of each civili-
zation and the particular contribution it had made to the
world's history. The plan, therefore, was to change from the
psychological approach to a study of history to the chronolgical,
to begin with the ancient world around the Mediterranean and
come down again through the European story to the peculiar
and differentiating factors of American history. The plan, how-
ever, was tried for two years only, and the records of the work
of the last year are too meagre for inferences of any value to
be drawn as to its ultimate success. In history, much time was
also given to making up the lacks in the consecutive study of
history required by college entrance examinations.4

The shop-work of this group for the quarter was not up to
the standard of that of Groups VIII or IX. The pupils chose
their own work, and the results were unsatisfactory. Some
showed a lack of ambition to undertake any worthy object;
some were ambitious beyond their skill; and some lacked de-
cision and perseverance. When careful work was required, most
of the group worked very slowly. The boys took some time to
complete the tool drawers in their benches, did some repair
work about the school and finished a tripod for a camera and
a bread board. The girls completed tool boxes, a mail box, two
or three book racks, a window seat, an oak table, an oak music
rack, and other smaller articles. The whole-hearted effort and
genuine interest of other years seems to have been lacking.
The cooking as a course had been discontinued with Group IX,
but on occasions when distinguished guests were present at
luncheon, the older groups were called in to plan, prepare, and
serve the meal.

The work in languages, French, Latin, and English, took on
a specialized character. In Latin, before beginning Caesar's

* A number of children had not been in the school from its beginning
and, in consequence, had not had all of its history courses.

SPECIALIZED ACTIVITIES 241

Commentaries, the class read his biography from Viri Romae*
In translation, emphasis was laid on syntax. In composition,
the aim was to help die children to gain a free use of Latin
idioms in their translation of English into Latin and in their
condensed historical reports. Sight reading was also part of the
program, and in connection with work on the Gallic wars a
detailed study of the life of Caesar's times was made, of its out-
standing men and the social, intellectual, and political events
of the period. In this year the children also started their first
formal study of the English language, and English was chosen
as the subject for special emphasis during the year. Some in-
tensive work was done on Latin derivatives. The points em-
phasized were: (i) consonant and vowel changes; (2) suffixes
and prefixes, their value and changes; (3) groxvth and change
in the meaning of derivatives. Cooperation with the French
teacher was necessary as the Latin element in the English lan-
guage, while partly derived directly from Latin, has, in the
main, come through French, and has been largely modified in
the process.

The first piece of work in composition 6 was a theme relating
to summer experience. The children's style was clear and fluent,
but inclined to be loose and inaccurate in sentence structure.
Careful criticism brought out some difficult grammatical points
which were analyzed and discussed; considerable logical power
was evidenced in attacking these grammatical problems. After
this preliminary work, the reading of one of Shakespeare's plays
was undertaken. As these children had not the habit of reading
aloud, they were very awkward. They had never read a play,
with the exception of two pupils. They knew nothing of
Shakespeare, nor of dramatic history, so a brief sketch of
Shakespeare's life and the prominent social features of his
time was made from books which the children read them-
selves. They had no way of expressing their ideas of meter and
in the beginning found it difficult to tell when they omitted a
syllable or inserted one which did not belong in the phrase.
As their attention had to be continually interrupted to dis-

« Taught by Marion Schibsby.
« Taught by Alice C. Bewey.

24* THE DEWEY SCHOOL

cover errors in reading, the work went very slowly at first. They
had had Roman History so that they understood the story of
the play. They committed to memory some couplets and short
passages, and as soon as the study of the first act was com-
pleted, they prepared an abstract. By this time they had enough
command of method to understand the character of work ex-
pected of them, and their interest in the story and the dramatic
setting was thoroughly aroused. The play was completed by
Christmas time; abstracts of each act were written; and an out-
line of the entire play given by every pupil in the class. In a
general way they understood the difference between the Shake-
spearean drama and preceding English drama. They were
familiar with the versification so far as its use went, although
no technical terms were given to them. The class showed par-
ticular interest in the character study. Two members carried
on a two-day debate over the comparative virtues of Brutus
and Cassius. Each member of the class had weighed all the
main characters and could give an opinion on their virtues or
vices and the relative importance of the part each had in the
drama.

This study cleared the way for a return to a study of the
village life and history of Shakespeare's time. Notes were made
of the many incidental allusions to the commercial changes
which were taking place in England. To explain these allusions
a study of the Tudor family's position and importance in history
was made in the winter quarter. The religious attitude of
France, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands was also discussed.
Since the pupils had no idea of the reasons why this period was
called the Renaissance of Learning, biographies of the great
discoverers in science were read. The discovery of the New
World and its commercial importance they already understood.
They studied the lives of Copernicus, of Sir Thomas More,
Martin Luther, the inventors of printing, and the story of the
rise of Protestantism and the settlement of Ireland. Working
back in history from Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth to the
Wars of the Roses, they studied Shakespeare's King Richard HI,
following the same method used in Julius Caesar. About five

SPECIALIZED ACTIVITIES 243

or six weeks were spent on the play. The class was much shocked
by the evil portrayed, and interest was somewhat depressed by
the shock to their feelings. The outlines and abstracts o£ the
acts were prepared, and a very good idea of the historical setting
was gained. The class was somewhat critical of the play and in-
clined to compare it with Julius Caesar, which they considered
much superior. However, in the end they were all impressed by
the intellect of King Richard, as well as horrified by his wicked-
ness.

THE WORK OF THE SPRING QUARTER

In the spring quarter work followed quite different lines.
It consisted of a critical analysis of the class papers prepared in
science.7 The subjects of these papers were volcanoes, glaciers,
and other physiographical features. The first task was to pre-
pare an outline of what they themselves were to write. They
had no idea how to attack this and in the first attempt were
quite as likely to put descriptions into their outlines as to
separate the headings or main topics. However, as the subject-
matter had been given them in logical order in the science class,
they soon grasped the idea that the order of composition was
simply the logic of thought or subject-matter, and rapidly gained
power to prepare clear and accurate outlines. The only details
taken up were those of grammar and sentence structure. The
differentiation between English and Latin caused them some
difficulty. In the former, they had to learn to depend upon
their 6wn analysis to determine the relation of a word to the
sentence. They were inclined at first to define such terms as
subject and object in too restricted a way. They came to see
that where no endings existed to place the word, the difficulty
of defining its use was increased. The main points in sentence
analysis, they soon grasped. Certain forms of diagramming sen-
tences were given, but these were not used for more than two
days, although the class showed an inclination to come back
to them. As time went on, they improved greatly in definiteness

T Taught by Wallace Atwood.

244 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

of statement and in ability to criticize their own forms of ex-
pression. Considerable time was spent throughout the entire
year in studying the derivations of words and the historical
development of their meanings. At the beginning of the year
the whole class was satisfied with a very loose explanation of
the meaning of a word, but after the year's study not one was
satisfied until he had looked it up in the Century Dictionary.
They often followed a word to its roots in other languages.

Group XI also carried on the printing of a daily newspaper
for a short time, as did other groups. This did much to interest
the children in language expression. On account of the pres-
sure of time, inconvenient quarters, and type of press, the work
was more limited than it might have been under more flexible
conditions. At one time the press was of great service in print-
ing the reading lessons for the younger children. Developments
in later progressive schools have shown that carried out in the
same way in which other occupations in the school were pur-
sued, printing might have been an absorbing interest and of
great educational value.

The group was active in school clubs and in the club-house
project. The Educational Club was under the special guidance
of these children. It started out with fine spirit the last year of
the school. The constitution of the club allowed any member
of the school to become a member, and several new names were
voted on. A committee was appointed to attend to the finances
of the club-house and to confer with an adviser to consider the
best method of raising the money for it. A pew president", secre-
tary, and treasurer were elected. The club then voted to take
charge of the Friday afternoon exercises of the school. A com-
mittee of three members was appointed for this purpose. The
children voted to have a general adviser, and a teacher was ap-
pointed. At a special meeting the Monday before Thanksgiving,
the club decided to raise the dues of dub members to twenty-
five cents a month until the house was paid for. They also
formed an athletic department, and the president appointed
a committee of three to decide definitely on the work of this
department.

SPECIALIZED ACTIVITIES 245

DEVELOPMENT OF EXPRESSION THROUGH THE WEEKLY ASSEMBLY

The weekly general assembly of the older children on Friday
afternoon of each week was always a social occasion and was
usually directed by the older groups. In the beginning, one of
the girls read a story of her own composition. The children
were then asked to bring in suggestions for programs. One
offered to have a friend come and play the piano. A girl of-
fered the play that she had been writing, volunteering to select
the actors and actresses and drill them in it. They all voted to
ask Professor Judson of the University to come to talk about the
trouble in China, requesting that they be allowed to ask all the
questions they wished. Extracts from the records of some of
these assemblies follow:

At the general exercises held on the Wednesday afternoon before
Thanksgiving, the children sang their songs of last year. Professor
MacClintock read a Thanksgiving story— Whittier's The Pumpkin.
On another occasion, papers written by the children of the various
groups on their class work were read. One read a long account of
the conquest of Peru, another, an account of a series of experiments
carried on in science during the fall.

One week Mr. F — gave a very informal talk to the children about
his experiences in Cuba during the late war. The children were so
much interested that they stayed half an hour afterwards asking
questions. In February Mr. Jenkin Lloyd Jones was invited to talk
on the subject of Lincoln. He accepted the invitation and entertained
them for half an hour with stories illustrating Lincoln's character-
istics.

At the next meeting the children celebrated Washington's birth-
day, Group IX prepared the program, in which each child had a part.
One played the boyhood of Washington; another, his school-days;
another, his part in the French and Indian War; Washington in the
Revolution; Washington as president; and Washington at home. One
girl said that she knew several stories of Washington which did not
come under any of these heads, so she wrote and read a paper on
"Incidents in the life of Washington." On this occasion they worked
together as a class better than ever before. Another afternoon
Miss Harmer talked to the children on the Horace Mann School,
and they asked many questions and seemed interested in the subject.
At the next assembly Dr. Coulter gave a description of his trip to-
the Yellowstone Park in 1870 when he went out with an expedition

246 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

appointed by the government to explore the Wyoming geysers. On
one occasion when a speaker failed to come, the children had an
old-fashioned spelling contest, Groups IX and X doing themselves
credit. On another, to which friends were invited, the program con-
sisted of a German play, the composition of which had formed the
basis of Group Vlll-fc's work for the winter quarter; in addition there
were songs and English and French recitations.

In the later years of the school the debating society became
very active and frequently took charge of the assembly program.
It was noticeable that a child speaking to children always got
rapt attention, and judgment of points in a debate grew to be
very discerning. All these weekly assemblies were productive
of good results, but a great handicap was the lack of an audi-
torium and any stage facilities.

The boys and girls of Group XI were divided for their music
periods. The latter sang well and with much enthusiasm. Sight
singing was emphasized, and they learned Schumann's "The
Wanderer/' Schubert's "Haiden Roslein" (in German) by note
and spent a large portion of their time in writing a long two-
part song which they notated on the board and copied. The
boys of the group, having completed the work on key and time
signatures, were told that unless they wished to sing, there was
nothing further to do, for them, in music.8 They responded to
this by suggesting that they write a song and chose as a topic
"La Journee" such as they had seen described in their recent
study of Ivanhoe in a literature course.9 The words finished,
they were at a loss for the music, and finally decided that the
teacher had better write it. Accordingly, she put a phrase of
music on the board which they proceeded to change by telling
on what line or space each note should be placed. They then
listened to and criticized the result. In this manner the song
was completed. The three older groups were allowed to learn
it They were then to invite the composers to chorus practice
and sing it for them. The latter, however, were not pleased
with the result, saying the voices were too high to do justice
to the song, and finally decided to learn to sing it themselves.

s May Root Kern, teacher.
» Mrs. Lander P. MacClintock.

SPECIALIZED ACTIVITIES 247

This they did and, finding they could, continued to sing for
the rest of the quarter.

The work in the art studio centered around the furnishing
and decorating of the now competed club-house. All the groups
o£ the school had been drawn into interested participation in
the final touches on the cherished project, but the older groups
designed and made most of the furniture, hangings, and rugs.
At various times the center of activity shifted from the studio to
the science laboratory for experimentation on vegetable dyes
(aniline dyes were viewed with scorn) or for the right mixture
of stain for the woodwork; again the carpentry shop was sought
out for some necessary construction of wood or metal; or it was
back to the textile studio for sewing and embroidery of the
curtains, or weaving the rugs already planned and designed.
Through all these activities ran the artistic motive— a genuine
longing that the house and all that was to be put therein should
be beautiful and appropriate. Interest and effort harnessed as a
team, driven by genuine desire that sprang from genuine need,
accomplished results of real quality. Although skilled guidance
was at hand and irremediable errors were not permitted, the
children had great freedom in directing their project. Naturally
many mistakes were made, some of which took much time and
hard labor to correct, but which taught much otherwise never
learned. The groups primarily responsible for the project had
organized themselves into various executive committees. The
committee on house decoration decided in favor of a dark
stain (then in vogue) for the woodwork of the house and, in
spite of the advice of those guiding the work, carried their idea
through. They were much criticized by the rest for the gloomy
effect of their choice, a criticism some of them recall to this
day.

SUMMARY

The little house when finished represented the best thought
and genuine interest as well as labor of many children, and it
grew out of genuine need. Its construction and decoration had
been guided by skilled persons, interested in helping the chil-
dren to conceive and achieve their ideals, and in the process to

248 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

learn to judge and critically evaluate their own results. With
these older children, as with all the groups in the school, the
motives for art expressions sprang out of other activities and
thus held vital relations for the children. The ideal of the
school was that skill in the technique of artistic expression
should keep pace with the children's intellectual concepts of
the way they wished to refine, adorn, or represent in line, color,
or day the thing they were making. This was an ideal difficult
to attain and more often than not failed of achievement. That
it was achieved, in a measure, in art, in music, and to a still
more limited degree in drama was a real achievement for those
in charge. These were pioneer days, and previous attempts to
cultivate artistic quality of expression from the kindergarten
to the studio were quite unknown. Since these early days great
progress has been made in the teaching of the musical and those
representative activities usually called the fine arts. There is
great value in this type of activity for securing freedom of ex-
pression and joyous creative effort. For the child this is what
might be called consummatory experience.

In justice it should be said that at all times the experiment
was much hampered by its limited quarters and equipment. Be-
cause of the lack of library and laboratory facilities especially,
many of the things done with the three older groups were second
choices as to subject-matter. The very nature of the school also
made it necessary for the children to concentrate under difficult
conditions of noise and interruption. This was not conducive
to the development of the habit of consecutive study necessary
to the best expression of individual thought in language or in
any other medium. Lack of a library, lack of quiet, lack of
beauty, lack of adequate space for club meetings, all made it
impossible to carry out many individual and group plans.
As was stated at the time,10 "It was never practically possible
to act adequately upon the best ideas obtained, because of
administrative difficulties, due to lack of funds, difficulties cen-
tering in the lack of a proper building and appliances and in
inability to pay the amounts necessary to secure the complete

10 John Dewey, "Psychology of the Elementary Curriculum," Elementary
School Record, Vol. i, No. 9.

SPECIALIZED ACTIVITIES 249

time of teachers in some important lines. Indeed, with the
growth of the school in numbers and in the age and maturity
of the pupils, it was always a grave question how long it was
fair to the experiment to carry it on without more adequate
facilities/*

Although the school had a number of children who were
finishing the third stage of growth of the elementary period,
it was not in existence long enough so that many typical in-
ferences as to results for this period could be safely drawn. There
did seem reason to hope, however, that with the consciousness
of difficulties, needs, and resources gained in the experience
of five years, children can be brought to and through this
period not only without sacrifice of thoroughness, mental dis-
cipline, and command of the technical tools of learning, but
also with a positive enlargement of life, and a wider, freer,
and more open outlook upon it.

At least it can be said that at fourteen these children had the
background of an unusually wide first-hand experience upon
which to base their more technical study, not only of artistic
forms and appreciations, but of all forms of knowledge, whether
scientific or practical, that had come within the range of their
activities. Where these experiences had taken root in the good
soil of native aptitudes, tendrils of intellectual and spiritual ap-
preciations of beauty of color, line, and form, of harmony and
rhythm, of ethical, social, and moral values and responsibilities
were reaching out, searching for the light of broader oppor-
tunities. They represented permanently rooted motives and
vocational interests which, given a chance, would grow into
continuing purposes and well-planned social action. This was
by no means true of all the children who had come through the
processes of the school. It possibly was true only of a very few,
but it is not too much to hold that what was accomplished gave
those who had eyes to see and ears to hear faith to believe
that here lay the way of an education that was also the way of
developing life.

CHAPTER XIV

PRINCIPLES OF GROWTH GUIDING
SELECTION OF ACTIVITIES

L

the school, education was recognized as a maturing proc-
ess, in which the young child grows in body and mind and in
ability to handle himself in his physical environment and in
his social relationships. The conditions for healthy bodily
growth had long been recognized, but the idea that power to
think depends upon the healthy growth and proper function-
ing of the mechanism of thought and its expression was, at
that time, quite new. The bearing upon education of psycho-
logical science as a study of this mechanism, and of the condi-
tions that minister to and promote its normal development in
mental power and intelligent action was still for the most part
unrecognized.

Two psychological assumptions of the school's hypothesis,
basic to its theory and controlling its practices, were radically
different from those that underlay the prevalent educational
theory and practice. The first of these recognized a psychologi-
cal and biological distinction between the child and the adult,
as a result of which it is neither physiologically nor mentally
possible to describe children as "little men and women." The
adult is a person with a calling and position in life. These place
upon him specific responsibilities which he must meet. They call
into play formed habits. The child's primary calling is growth.
He is forming habits as well as using those already formed. He is,
therefore, absorbed in making contacts with persons and things
and in getting that range of acquaintance with the physical and
ideal factors of life which should be the background and afford
the material for the specialized activities of later life. Recogni-

250

PRINCIPLES OF GROWTH 251

tion of this difference, therefore, conditioned the selection and
arrangement of all school materials and methods in order to
facilitate full normal growth. It also required faith in the re-
sults of growth to provide the power and ability for later spe-
cialization.

The second assumption was that the conditions which make
for mental and moral progress are the same for the child as for
the adult. For one, as for the other, power and control are
obtained through realizing personal ends and problems, through
personal choosing of suitable ways and means, and through
adapting, applying and thereby testing what is selected in ex-
perimental and socially acceptable action.

ACTIVITIES OF THE CURRICULUM

The studies in the curriculum, the physical and social set-
up of the school building and classrooms, the type of equip-
ment, and the method of instruction all had to be chosen with
the idea of die growing child in mind. His changing interests
and needs and his ideally increasing power to act, to initiate,
to judge, and to accept responsibility for the consequences of
his action had to be considered. In selecting studies, it was ac-
cepted that a child's present living contains within itself ele-
ments, facts, and truths of the same sort as those that enter into
the various formulated studies such as geography or other
sciences. To constantly develop the possibilities inherent in the
child's immediate crude experience was an important problem
of the curriculum. It was also recognized as more important,
that the attitudes, motives, and interests of the growing child
are identical with those that operate in developing and organiz-
ing the subject-matter of these studies. In other words, spe-
cialized studies were thought of as outgrowths of present
forces that are operating in the child's life. The problem of
instruction was to help the child discover for himself the steps
that intervene between his present experience and these or-
ganized and classified bodies of facts known as chemistry,
physics, history, geography, etc. Subject-matter was not thought
of as something fixed and ready-made in itself, outside the

252 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

child's experience; nor was the child's experience thought of
as hard and fast, but as something fluent, embryonic, vital.

1 "The child and the curriculum are simply two limits which
define a single process. Just as two points define a straight line,
so the present standpoint of the child and the facts and truths
of studies define instruction. It is a continuous reconstruction,
moving from the child's present experience out into that repre-
sented by the organized bodies of truth that we call studies.

"On the face of it, the various studies, arithmetic, geography,
language, botany, etc., are themselves experience— they are that
of the race. They embody the cumulative outcome of the
efforts, the strivings, and the successes of the human race, genera-
tion after generation. They present this, not as a mere accumu-
lation, not as a miscellaneous heap of separate bits of experi-
ence, but in some organized and systematic way— that is, as
reflectively formulated.

"Hence, the facts and truths that enter into the child's pres-
ent experience and those contained in the subject-matter of
studies are the initial and final terms of one reality."

Specialized studies are the systematized and defined experi-
ence of the adult mind. While not parts of the immediate life
of the child, they define and direct the movement of his activi-
ties. They are far-away objectives, but are, nevertheless, of
great importance, for they supply the guiding method in deal-
ing with the present. As part of the experience of the adult mind
of the teacher, they are of indispensable value in interpreting
the child's present life and in guiding or directing his activi-
ties. Interpretation of the present in terms of the past for use
in future activities, and guidance in the performance of these
activities are the two essential elements in the instruction
process.

2 "To interpret a fact is to see it in its vital movement, to see
it in its relation to growth. But to view it as a part of a normal
growth is to secure the basis for guiding it. Guidance is not ex-

ijohn Dewey, The Child and the Curriculum (Chicago, University of
Chicago Press, 1902).
2 Op. cit.

PRINCIPLES OF GROWTH 253

ternal imposition. It is freeing the life-process for its own most
adequate fulfilment"

STAGES OF GROWTH

It was necessary to keep in mind that the various stages of a
child's growth are transitional, blend into one another, and
over lap. His present experience is but an index of certain
growth-tendencies. It cannot be isolated from his developing
experience. His development is a definite process having its
own law which can be fulfilled only when adequate and normal
conditions are provided.

The teacher's part in this coming-to-maturity process is that
of interpreter and guide as the child reenacts, rediscovers, and
reconstructs his experience from day to day. The teacher sets
the stage for the moving drama of the child's life, supplies the
necessary properties when needed, and directs the action both
toward the immediate goal of the child and also toward the
direction of that far-away end which is clear in her mind, but
as yet unseen by the child.

It was essential that the activties selected for a school life
providing this sort of growing experience should be, first of all,
basic; that is, those that provide for fundamental needs such
as food, clothing, or shelter. Such activities are genuine and
timeless. Their reality excites the interest of the child and en-
lists his effort, for they are what his elders do, have done, and
must continue to do.

In the second place especially for young children these ac-
tivities should be simple. The early modes of occupations and
industries when primitive tools and machines were used such
as the child can rediscover, reinvent, and reconstruct or the
present small, general farm furnish activities that are both
interesting to the child and within his constructive powers.
They also introduce the child to raw materials which must be
made over by him into the finished product of his imagination.
Fear of raw material has been a great handicap of the educa-
tional past, in the laboratory, in the manual training shop, the
Montessori House of Childhood, the Froebelian Kindergarten.

254 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

The demand has been for ready-made toys and materials, which
other minds and hands or machines have produced. This is
true in academic book-learning as well as in the subject-matter
of active occupations. It is true that such material will control
the child's operations so as to prevent mistakes, but the idea
that a child using such materials will somehow achieve without
effort the intelligence that originally shaped or stated this ma-
terial is false.

Furthermore, these activities are not merely things a child
is interested in doing; they typify social situations and involve
the relationships which he can feel and understand. A child
can no more enter into or understand the present social organi-
zation without experiencing the simpler stages of living than
he can appreciate a musical symphony without having shared
in the simpler forms of music. Man's fundamental common con-
cerns center about food, clothing, and shelter, household fur-
nishings and the appliances connected with production, ex-
change and consumption. They represent both the necessities
of life and the -adornments and luxuries with which necessities
have been amplified. They tap instincts at deep levels. They
are full of facts and principles having scientific, social, i. e.,
moral qualities and implications. Gardening, weaving, con-
struction in wood, manipulation of metals, cooking, etc., have
much more than a bread-and-butter value, and it is for educa-
tion to reveal their scientific implication and social worth. Gar-
dening gives an approach to knowledge of the place farming
and horticulture have had in the history of the race and which
they occupy in the present social organization. Scientifically
controlled gardening thus becomes the means for studying facts
of growth, chemistry of soil, r61e of light, air, and moisture, etc.,
or elementary botany. These facts are thus seen as a part of
life and have intimate correlations with facts about soil, animal,
and human life. As the child matures he himself discovers prob-
lems of interest which he will want to pursue and thus pass
over into more and more adult intellectual investigations.

When the subject-matter of the elementary curriculum is
made up of these play and work activities, a child becomes
familiar, during his formative period, with many aspects of

PRINCIPLES OF GROWTH 255

knowledge in relation to living. With increasing maturity he
sees how the sciences gradually grow out from useful occupa-
tions, physics out of the use of tools and machines, chemistry
out of processes of dyeing, cooking, metal smelting, etc. Mathe-
matics is now a highly abstract science. Geometry, however,
means literally earth-measuring. The use of number to keep
track of things is far more important to-day than when it was
invented.

8 "The most direct road for elementary students into civics
and economics is found in the consideration of the place and
office of industrial occupations in social life."

Furthermore, social occupations of this fundamental type
enable the child to discover and become skilled in the use of
the scientific method. They lead his thought and experimental
action farther and farther afield. Concrete experiences in living
and discovering as he lives, multiply. Horizons lift. Possibilities
beckon. Skills improve. Knowledge put to use becomes wis-
dom, the woof of the web of living. What has proved helpful in
a number of situations is drawn off (abstracted) and used in
others. Abstraction thus becomes an instrument for intelligent
action by which useful knowledge is fed into experience. Facts
of knowledge are enlarged in significance, are seen in their
human as well as their physical, technical or economic aspects.
Little by little the social becomes identified with the moral in-
terest.

This sort of growing experience was possibly best illustrated,
in the school, in those groups of children who followed from
the beginning the steadily developing course in cooking which
was part of the program of all the elementary years. Year after
year, as they cooked their luncheons, they tested their foods-
cereals, vegetables, meats— for the presence of starch, proteins,
fats, and other constituents. At the end of this continued course,
in making a summary of these years of experimenting, great
was the children's delight to find that they themselves could
classify all foods ("a great number") into three great classes,
in accord with the presence or absence in varying degree of

sjohn Dewey, Democracy and Education (New York, The Maonillan
Co., 1916), p. 336.

256 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

carbohydrates, protein, and fat. Without knowing it, by suc-
cessive, carefully interpreted, and guided steps, they had come
to a realization that their kitchen was a laboratory, and that a
certain phase of their cooking was a study of the chemistry of
food. Thus appreciation grew of the efforts of the past which
had given them a heritage of finesse in the science and art of
cooking.

TYPES OF SUBJECT-MATTER

In an article, "The Place of Manual Training in the Ele-
mentary Course of Study," Mr. Dewey summarized six years'
experimentation with the school program and these types and
groupings of subject-matter. He placed the studies under three
heads, finding this arrangement both clarifying and of some
philosophic value. In the first group are those which are not
so much studies as active pursuits or occupations, modes of ac-
tivity, play and work, which appeal to the child for their own
sake and yet lend themselves to educative ends. This sort of
play and work gives the pupil command of a method of in-
quiry and experimental action, leads to inventive and creative
effort and gradually to an understanding of the abstract sci-
ences. In the second group is the subject-matter which gives
the background of social life, including history and geography,
history as the record of what has made the present forms of as-
sociated life what they are, geography as the statement of the
physical conditions and theatre of man's social activities. In the
third group are the studies which give the pupil command of
the forms and methods of intellectual communication and in-
quiry, understanding inquiry to include science as the organ
of social progress. Such studies as reading, grammar, and the
more technical modes of arithmetic are the instrumentalities
which the race has worked out as best adapted to further dis-
tinctively intellectual interests. The child's need of command
of these, so that, using them freely for himself, he can ap-
propriate the intellectual products of civilization, is so obvious
that they constitute the bulk of the traditional curriculum. Mr.
Dewey points out that in the more advanced stages of educa-
tion it may be desirable to specialize these subjects in such a

PRINCIPLES OF GROWTH 257

way that they lose this direct relationship to social life, but in
elementary education he finds that they are valuable just in
the degree in which they are treated as furnishing the social
setting or background of life.

* "Along the lines of these three groups there is a movement
away from direct personal and social interest to its indirect and
remote forms. The first group represents to the child the same
sort of activities that occupy him directly in his daily life, and
with which he is thoroughly familiar. The second group is still
social, but gives the background rather than the direct reality
of associated life. The third group— such studies as reading and
grammar and the various forms of arithmetic— is also social,
not in itself or in any of its immediate suggestions and associa-
tions, but because of its ultimate motives and effects. The pur-
pose of these latter is to maintain the continuity of civiliza-
tion."

FIRST GROUP OF ACTIVE PURSUITS

In the school, the studies of the first group included all plays
and games, the forms of bodily exercise usually classified as
physical culture, and the various kinds of manual training or
constructive work. There were also a variety of school resources
not usually included under this head, such as the out-of-door
excursions, and much of the more active observational and ex-
perimental work in nature study. In the latter, it was not so
much the objective facts, much less the scientific laws, that con-
cerned the child, as it was the direct manipulation of materials
and the application of simple forms of energy to produce in-
teresting results. Wide use was made of the various kinds of
activities belonging to this first group of studies with children
of all ages. It was recognized that physical activity, the use of
the bodily organs, is a large part of whatever interests and
absorbs a child.

A sound body is a first concern for normal, wholesome growth*
Consequently, the play and physical culture program of the
school was the result of much thought and careful planning.

* John Dewey, "The Place of Manual Training in the Elementary Course
of Study," Manual Training Magazine, Vol. II, No. 4 (July, 1901).

258 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

Even with the older children, because of the active life carried
on at all times, the gymnasium was not thought of as a place
to exercise; it was, rather, a place to play in when the weather
did not permit play outdoors. It was also the place to deal with
the particular weaknesses of children, either as groups or as
individuals. A teacher of physical culture in charge of the work
for a time describes the work with the various groups: 5

The work with the young children (Groups I, II, III, ages 4-6)
was confined chiefly to marching steps, when posture and rhythm
were emphasized. Games came next, in which running played a large
part. These served to develop the child's ability to coordinate and
control himself, and prepare him for more difficult games requiring
alertness, dexterity and strength. ... It was some time before they
learned how to play—how to follow rules and regulations and restrain
their whole-hearted eagerness, and it still seems a question, after
some months of xvork with all ages, as to how soon regular gymnastic
work should begin with the younger children. The educational value
of systematic games and plays for children under eight or nine years
is far greater. These, however, should be developed systematically,
from the simpler to the more complex, and would then be a great
factor in developing the child's sense of coordination and control.
This after all is the main object of physical training.

With the older groups (IV and V) more stress was laid on correct
posture and regular gymnasium work. The plays, a great proportion
of them ball games, were made more and more difficult, thus re-
quiring increased coordination and self-control. Drills took up part
of the time, the length of the drill increasing with their capacity,
and some apparatus work had a marked effect upon the standing
position of the children. Each week, fifty minutes was spent on
gymnastic drill, forty to fifty on games, and twenty minutes on
marching, running, and similar exercises.

The children of Group VIII spend much time learning to work to-
gether. Through their games a great deal was accomplished toward
promoting a class spirit, and a certain amount of cooperation in then*
sports was soon noticed, especially when one part of the class was
pitted against the other. Added to this there was a dawning realiza-
tion that in order to win, it was not so much what each individual
did that counted, but what they did as a whole. With the coming
of warm weather, baseball revived, and both boys and girls were
enthusiastic about it. The boys organized a team, elected officers,
collected dues to pay for the outfit, and began practice. The girls
took up fencing.

3 dark Peterson, Head of Department of Physical Culture, 1900-1903.

PRINCIPLES OF GROWTH 259

In Group X (age 13) the emphasis was laid on posture, and a
visible improvement in the carriage and general control of the body
was noticed, which seemed to show that more should be done in the
way of applied gymnastics.

So many of the school's activities involved the child's whole
body in such a controlled way that he developed physically as
well as mentally. As before stated the limitations of the school's
equipment and environment and financial resources handi-
capped the amount of dramatic and rhythmic expression im-
portant to a well-rounded development.

In the spring of 1900 the bad posture of many children re-
sulted in a plan to give each child a thorough examination for
physical defects. The age at which such an examination would
be of help seems to have been discussed thoroughly. Some
specialists held that, as the percentage of children under eight
years with slight spinal deviations is great, such examinations
under that age would be impracticable. The records show that
all the children above Group III (age six) were individually
examined. Of the forty-three girls, slight spinal curvatures were
discovered in twenty; three cases seemed serious; seven were
in poor physical condition irrespective of spinal curvatures.
Fifty boys were examined; thirteen were found to have spinal
curvatures; five cases were serious; and twelve were in poor
physical condition. The examination was a rigid one, and
all the slight deviations of the spine were noted, which ac-
counts for the large number of curvatures. The cases were re-
ported to the parents, and when necessary, special exericse was
advised. The general conclusion was that a curvature is not a
normal condition at any age and needs remedial measures.

In planning the program, preference was given to those
physical activities which gave additional control over the child's
whole organism through enlisting his social interest in the end
or purpose of the activity, whether climbing a ladder, walking
a beam gracefully, or playing a game well. The ulterior pur-
pose of the teacher, however, was the development in the child
of control, skill, quick thinking, and social attitudes. It is
scarcely necessary to add that an essential element in all this
health promotion program, and one recognized by all the de-

26o THE DEWEY SCHOOL

partments of the school, was the intelligent cooperation of the
child himself through his interest in what contributed to his
own well-rounded development and the proper functioning of
his bodily organs. The place on each group 's program for the
periods of free bodily movement and play was planned with
reference to the type of work that preceded and followed it,
but the test of a satisfactory period of play and physical exercise
was a quiet, poised, happy child. Such a child went to his next
class with a contented spirit, ready and interested to enter into
the work.

The department of physical education in this school never
fully carried the finer extensions of its meanings to their ex-
pression in the art of rhythmic movement as now developed
in the esthetic and interpretative dance. In the last year of the
school, after it had moved into the School of Education build-
ings, and there was adequate and suitable space for such experi-
mentation, the first steps toward such a development were
taken.

Many of the activities of this first group of studies are part
of daily life and minister to daily needs, such as the buying and
preparation of food, the making of clothing, and the construc-
tion of shelter. They represent to a young child the familiar
and yet mysterious and, therefore, intensely interesting things
that adults do. They are the present; they suggest the past,
and point to the future. They thus provide a thread of con-
tinuity in any situation, at any time, which links the child to
his present no matter how far afield he may have gone— imagina-
tively.

6 "No one any longer doubts the educational value of the
training of hand and eye and, what is of greater importance, of
hand and eye coordination. Nor is it necessary any longer to
argue the fact that this training of hand and eye is also directly
and indirectly a training of attention, constructive and repro-
ductive imagination, and power of judgment. For many years
the manual training movement has been greatly facilitated by

e John Dewey," The Place of Manual Training in the Elementary Course
of Study," The University Record, Vol. I, No. 32. (Address by Mr. Dewey
before the Pedagogical Club, October 31, 1896.)

PRINCIPLES OF GROWTH 261

its happy coincidence with the growing importance attached in
psychological theory to the motor element. The old emphasis
upon the strictly intellectual elements, sensations and ideas,
has given way to the recognition that a motor factor is so
closely bound up with the entire mental development that the
latter cannot be intelligently discussed apart from the former.
Even more necessary in present-day society is the social under-
standing gained by every child who shares, emotionally as well
as actually, in all forms of physical labor. . . .

"It is legitimate, therefore, to inquire whether there is not
also something peculiarly appropriate upon the social side
in demanding a considerable part in elementary education for
this group of activities. We must go even deeper in our con-
ception of the educational position of these activities. We ought
to see where and how they not only give formal training of
hand and eye, but lay hold of the entire physical and mental
organism, give play to fundamental aptitudes and instincts, and
meet fundamental organic necessities. It is not enough to
recognize that they develop hand and eye, and that this de-
velopment reacts favorably into the physical and mental
development. We should see what social needs they spring out
of and what social values, what intellectual and emotional
nutriment they bring to the child which cannot be conveyed
as well in any other way. . . .

"A child is attentive to what relates to his activities, in other
words, to what interests him; hence the senses get their stimulus
from the motor side, from what the child wishes to do. It is not
necessary to make up a set of stimuli to hold his attention or
to get him interested when he is using the saw or plane. His
senses are on the alert, since he must use them to do something.
This is the psychological reason for beginning with the child's
activities. On the social side they introduce him to the world
of human relationships; on the individual side they reveal him
to himself as a factor in those relations."

The carpentry shop of the school was one of its main labora-
tories. The work there brought the children into relation with
the occupations of the outside world. The study of the source
of the materials for this work led the children to many coun-

262 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

tries; its tools and methods were linked to past ways and means,
inventions and discoveries. These activities led to study of the
sciences, of physics as the study of applied energy and of the
methods of commerce and distribution. Much of the construc-
tive work which was necessary and related to the development
of the major activities of all the groups was carried on in the
shop. For a number of years the head of the carpentry shop con-
tributed more than many others to the worth of this form of
manual training in the school's curriculum. From his experi-
ence he claims for manual training, as for all other occupations
in the school, that it is not just an attempt to teach a child a
trade, but is a part of the whole educational process.

7 Because we teach a child to saw or plane, it does not follow that
we expect the child to be a carpenter. What we do wish is to make
the child think— to question— to wonder. One day a child was push-
ing a plane straight on a piece of wood and remarked to his neighbor
how hard the plane worked. The small boy thus addressed said: "If
you put your plane so (showing how to place the plane at an angle
and yet be perfectly level with the edge of the board) it will work
easier/' When questioned why it worked more easily, he said it was
because all of the plane was not on the board at once. The child,
knowing almost nothing of friction, had discovered its principle in a
concrete applied case, through his own efforts and experimentation.

It is more and more commonly recognized that the best place for
manual training is in the lower grades, that the child gets more
from it between the ages of four and fourteen than afterwards. Girls
profit just as much as boys from this training in the early grades and
are often as expert and more painstaking. . . .

Number work is an important skill and is closely allied to the
shop-work. Even the making of a simple box calls for a variety of
processes. In laying out the five or six parts of a box from a long
piece of wood, multiplication and division of inches and fractions
of an inch must be used. Subtraction of fractions enters into the
cutting of the ends to fit the sides of the box. Addition of inches and
fractions of inches is also brought out. In fact, there is no part of
manual training that does not use the number processes, and mental
arithmetic in various forms is often necessary. . . . Much of the
work calls for practical geometry, and a set of small articles to help
in demonstrating geometry was designed and made by the children,
including protractors, squares bisected diagonally and cut to make

T Frank H. Ball, "Manual Training," The Elementary School Record,
Vol. I, No. 7.

PRINCIPLES OF GROWTH 263

forty-five degree triangles, certain forms to demonstrate kinds of
angles and to show that opposite angles are equal . . .

In building the club-house, from the carpenter's point of view,
many ideas new to the children were brought out. They were in-
terested to find that in house construction as in textile work, we have
warp and filling, and that we tie the parts to give strength. The vari-
ous types of joints were discussed in detail, and models were made
in the shop. The bill of lumber for the house involved much cal-
culation and use of number processes. The number of feet of floor-
ing, of drop-siding, the number of square feet to be covered by
shingles, the number and length of rafters, sills, and corner posts
were all calculated by the children. . . .

It has been said, "Manual Training is a distinct branch of educa-
tion/' Such is not the case. It is part of the whole education of the
child, and by working in harmony with the other departments it
becomes more so. ... None of the other branches of the school lose
dignity because they are made to dovetail into the other subjects.
Why should manual training? Weaving is more interesting to chil-
dren because they can make their own looms and spindles in the
shop, and the shop work is more interesting because they can use
their own products. History does not become dull because they have
made in miniature the same things the people they have been study-
ing about made. They encounter and appreciate the difficulties that
primitive peoples met with, and understand better the labor and
cost that has gone into the comforts and conveniences of the present.
When a group of children came last year with eager faces and asked
if they might make backs for the thermometer bulbs they had just
finished in the science department, to them the shop-work was
of vital importance for there they could make an essential part of
those thermometers. Without the back it would have beeen simply
a glass tube, filled with mercury. . . .

This correlation of manual training with other departments is in
a state of evolution and will not be accomplished in one year, nor
by one man. The results must be accomplished by the cooperation
of all the teachers. When the group teacher submits articles necessary
in her work and the manual training teacher helps the children to
put them into form, bringing out in the process the principles of
construction, elements of geometry or of tool practice which the child
needs, good results will be reached. Formal number work is put to
the test of practical use in the shop, and in countless other ways too
numerous to mention, the work of the shop is a part of the complete
whole.8

8 Mr. Ball found that ordinary tools were much too heavy for the younger
children. He planned and had made a lighter set of tools most frequently
used, consisting of a hack-saw, chisel, plane, claw-hammer, and a special

264 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

Playing house or building houses and playing at house-
keeping in them, after the manner of peoples being studied
by the class, were constantly recurring activities of interest
to each age in turn. The four- and five-year-olds built houses
of blocks and then of boxes or cardboard and furnished them
to take home. Much of the constructive work of the children in
Groups I and II was carried on in their own room. When they
came to work with wood, however, the need for skilled direc-
tion sent them to the carpenter shop for help. One year a group
of eight-year-old boys, of their own choice and on their own
initiative, constructed a large playhouse for the younger chil-
dren to paint and furnish. Even at this self-centered age the
pleasure of working for the kindergarten children carried them
through the continued effort necessary to complete the house,
to roof it properly, and to leave it in shape for the younger
children to finish.

In the succeeding years of their school life, as they relived
the story of developing civilization, the children studied the
housing people of early times had found suitable to various
physical environments. Some of the projects proved too long
and repetitious to be worth while. Others were most successful
and led the children on into further and related undertakings.
When Group VI (9 years) were studying the early settlement of
Chicago, they undertook the construction of a model of Fort
Dearborn. This proved a long and arduous term's work, but
was finally carried through and completed on the last day
of the quarter. The next year these same children by mutual
agreement planned and furnished the inside of a colonial room.

The building of the club-house, elsewhere described, was the
peak-point in the development of the shelter activity program.
What was accomplished seemed small even then in the light
of what might have been done had there not been so many
lacks in the way of equipment, time, and space. Its story, like
that of any pioneering in any field, is the story of the blazing
of a trail. It is difficult to tell in retrospect to what degree those

saw-bracket. These, with the pencil-compass, were all used successfully
by the lower grades. There were no serious accidents, and the children
gained in strength, skill, and accuracy.

PRINCIPLES OF GROWTH 265

children or teachers who participated in the project realized
the possibilities for its extension into the fields of architecture
and house decoration, and thence into the world of artistic
values and spiritual meanings.9 It remains to-day only a hint
of what might be.

The other activities used in the school were determined on
the basis of what would be most constructive in broadening
and deepening the child's daily experience into well-rounded
wholes from which expression through language and other
forms of communication would naturally evolve. Farming,
forestry, pottery-making, basket-weaving, gardening, the smelt-
ing of metals such as copper, tin, gold, silver, and many other
activities carried on sometimes in miniature held the children's
interest and gave them a keener appreciation of raw mate-
rials, their sources and possibilities, the part they had played
with peoples of the world, and their value in our present social
organization.

SUMMARY

Technique was not stressed with the younger children. With
them the chief interest was in the process. If the result, how-
ever faulty, served the purpose they had in mind, it satisfied
them. Much of the meaning of the work in the graphic and
auditory arts would have been lost if this had not been true.
Painting in the early years is merely a putting on of color.
If the surfaces of a box, a chair, the wall of a toy house, or just
sheets of paper are thus covered, the end of the process, the ap-
plication of color, for a little child, is a realized idea. He is ex-
pressing in color his idea of grass, of sky, of a dog or a man.
To enable him by helpful and timely direction to increase his
skill that it might be proportionate to the growth of his idea
was an ideal that taxed to the utmost the skill of the an
teacher.

9 An alumna of the school writes as follows: "The building of the dub-
house, more than all the books I have read, than all the beautiful buildings
I have seen, more than any other experience in my life, has helped me to
see and appreciate architecture. I got far more out of helping with my
own hands in this real and practical work than out of books." Josephine
Crane (Mrs. H. C. Bradley).

266 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

Little by little, also, in response to need, desire awoke for
skill in the more difficult arts of communication, and activi-
ties involving the use of the skills of reading, writing, or of
commensurable numbers, took their place and time in the
curriculum. Thus the list of the needful and useful activities
of daily living multiplied. Their educational import became
more and more apparent, demonstrated as it was, hour by
hour, day by day, year by year. On the basis of this proof by
practice of the educational and social value of activity, it is
possible to draw certain generalizations which are in turn but
a restatement of the original hypothesis.

Social occupations such as these appeal to the interest and
powers of little people and at the same time typify to them in
simplified and understandable form the general kinds of social
activity of their gradually enlarging world. Children willingly
enter into the sort of activity that occupies the adults of their
world, for they recognize that they are genuine and worthy of
effort. Such activities are capable of the utmost simplification
to suit the powers of any age; they can also be amplified and
extended to meet increasing interests and growing powers.
The stream of developing conscious life in a child thus occu-
pied becomes, as it were, a solvent for the absorption of useful
information. Interest and effort reenforce one another in the
process of learning how to do with increasing skill the things
which occupy his larger world and are always just ahead of
him, luring him on to better individual effort to meet indi-
vidual and social needs.

The developing program thus opened up infinite possibili-
ties for the extension of meanings. It aided the child to gain
an intellectual constructiveness and a socialized disposition.
The play of the first two years gradually took on the character
of work, motivated as both were by the same social interest hi
purposeful activity directed to desired ends. The only ap-
preciable difference between the two was in the child's own
idea of the larger result of his work. These occupations of both
play and work became direct instrumentalities for the exten-
sion of meaning. They became magnets for gathering and re-
taining an indefinitely wide scope of intellectual considera-

PRINCIPLES OF GROWTH 267

tions. They became avenues along which and by means of
which the feeling, thinking, acting child grew into greater
power, ability, and sympathetic understanding of himself in
relation to his physical and social world; they led to the dis-
covery of the spiritual quality of value that attaches itself to
things that are of use and to relationships that are held dear.

PART in

EDUCATIONAL USE OF SCIENTIFIC
METHOD

CHAPTER XV

EXPERIMENTAL

ACTIVITIES DEVELOPING

SCIENTIFIC METHOD AND CONCEPTS

I

N continuing the discussion of the school's curriculum, it
is necessary to remember one of the tenets of its philosophy of
growth, namely, that there must be steps in the development
of all subject-matter comparable to the stages of growth in
the experience of the child. The first knowledge that is im-
portant to a child is power to do. The occupations and the
arts, therefore, formed the initial stages of the curriculum, for
they correspond to knowing how to go about the accomplish-
ment of ends.

This power to do, this familiarity with many things and
activities, this acquaintance with skills and tools was constantly
extended and deepened through communicated knowledge (or
information) gleaned from the storehouses of the past—what
man has done and where and how he has done it. To the de-
gree that such information was organized by the child into
his experience, was used by him to accomplish his construc-
tion, to express his idea and thus attain his end, it became his
own; it acted as a bridge for him to pass over from doubt to
discovery, from failure to success.

Scientific method was the constantly used tool not alone in
the science laboratories. By common consent it was the method
at all times and in all situations where processes and activities
were such that active investigation, testing out of guesses or
theories, imagining possible results of this or that physical or
social relation could be carried on. Systematized facts and
knowledge (commonly called scientific) were also made avail-
able to the child. He was led by the teacher or through access
to books to see their use in his activity and was taught how to

271

272 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

lay hold of them as real aids in his construction or expression.
Since the time of this experiment in education, an enormous
amount of systematized, scientific knowledge has been made
available. Largely through the labors of secondary school
teachers, chemistry, physics, biology, etc*, are taught in favored
normal schools and colleges in close connection with the
processes of everyday life. The textbooks published for sec-
ondary schools contain all details for successful performance
of typical experiments. These can be easily rescaled for use
by teachers of the elementary age. One of the main purposes
of this chapter, therefore, is to point out the psychological and
scientific grounds for wise choice of material for this age. The
illustrations are chosen to show how the child can be helped
to make a habit of forming generalizations helpful in the next
step or steps of his plan or project.

GENERALIZATIONS AT LOWER LEVELS

With a young child these generalizations begin as concrete
groupings of objects by qualities. For example, he collects
stones of certain color, size, or shape, according to his use for
them in games such as skipping over water. This develops
into grouping objects such as stones according to a character
more often recognized as abstract, for example, according to
their method of formation. The fact that sedimentary rock
such as slate is flat rock becomes a conscious factor in the
child's research for skipping stones. Igneous rocks (non-
explosive) are chosen for building a fireplace. The child's pro-
cedure, therefore, has passed from a color, size, or form group-
ing to an abstract, geological classification according to method
of the origin because that knowledge is of use in his activity.

LATER DEVELOPMENT OF CLASSIFICATION, I. E., ABSTRACTIONS

Such early play experiences are the kind a skilled teacher
draws upon to verify and amalgamate new steps in the more
advanced activities of a later study of man's use of the earth's
rocks in making buildings, cements, plasters, paints, etc. In

DEVELOPING SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS 273

this later period of school life a child's power of abstraction takes
on more and more adult form and grows to an appreciation and
interest in the systematized fields of scientific knowledge such
as geography, physiography, geology, biology, chemistry or
physics. Heretofore, his experience has had, so to speak, a geo-
graphical aspect, a historical or chemical aspect. Geographical,
historical, or chemical facts were interesting and appreciated,
not for their own sake, but largely because they were useful in
his activity. With the growing adult point of view he develops
interest in and appreciation of the value of organized and
classified knowledge, again not for its own sake, but for its
classification and organization for use in his more mature
investigation and research.

In the formative period of the elementary age these various
aspects of knowledge must fit into the child's moving experi-
ence as aids to his activities concerned with man's fundamental,
needs. Geography, physiography, geology, etc., furnish facts
about the earth which is man's home and the physical and
chemical characteristics of the earth's surface, its formation
and the laws of its forces are intimately related to life and
living. Biology is the study of living things. A teacher con-
stantly presents to the child such experience in the care of
plants and animals that he comes to understand the conditions
of growth, ultimately tracing the source of all life energy back
to the sun. Through his interest in his own growth and his
dependence on light, air, and food, he later comes to appreciate
physiology as the study of the way the parts and organs of
living things like himself function, and understands what
balance and equilibrium in living must be maintained through
hygienic habits of exercise, sleep, and food. The linking of the
preparation and care of food with these topics insures a favor-
able conditioning with respect to them that will survive
throughout life. In the school, the facts of botany, zoology, and
bacteriology were taught from the point of view of function
and adaptation to environment. In such schooling the teacher
is also experimenting in the sense that she cannot foretell in
detail just what turn the children's immediate reaction will
take. It is her office to see that the children, knowing what

274 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

they want to do, are helped to solve their problems through
recalling what had been helpful in their past experience. In
the process she supplied the new vocabulary, symbols, or ap-
paratus needed.

INVENTION AND DISCOVERY TESTED BY ACTION

The method of conducting all classes through the medium
of conversation and free exchange of ideas resulted in a uni-
form daily procedure which supplied the thread of continuity,
for it linked the experience of previous days or weeks to the
new or continued activity of the present. In all this activity,
invention and discovery found their place. In all social situa-
tions, the ideas formed by the group were tested in action.
When necessary, suggestions were given of ways to act, but a
margin of the unknown was always left which the child must
try out and so face responsibility in his success or failure. An
essential moral attitude, now called facing reality, was achieved
by the child through manipulating, with varying degrees of
success or failure, the brute facts of the material world, as he
followed or developed his plan to attain a desired result. With
growth in maturity the children came to have more and more
remote ends and also became more conscious of what they
did. Their group discussions were more detailed, and ex-
periences of their own past more frequently leaped into con-
sciousness. Children of six years remembered playing millers
the previous year, but had forgotten what they did as millers.
In dramatizing the mining industry they only wanted to be
the miners who contributed coal to their own furnaces. They
were not interested as to what determined the depth where
coal was formed. To an alert teacher the questions asked in-
dicate the amount of detail to be used at any age. In conse-
quence, at six years there was no detailed experimentation
with materials used in carrying out play. Each classroom was
a social laboratory— a place to experiment with ideas which
carried a social import. The children tested the efficiency of
these ideas by dramatic action. The teacher was stage director,
furnishing the necessary data (how and where coal is really

DEVELOPING SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS 275

found, where forests grow, how men get the trees that furnish
lumber), and when ideas were slack, prompting with sugges-
tion as to ways and means or helping with her greater knowl-
edge of technique. To some teachers it seemed wiser to cover
a variety of occupations in this dramatic fashion because of
the wide experience of the children with whom they dealt.
With those of more limited experience, greater detail in carry-
ing out a few occupations proved better adapted to the chil-
dren's way of thinking.1 When the children had acquired
enough ease in the skills of communication and had reached
the stage of written reports, records, and stories, experimenta-
tion with language went on. Everywhere and at all times the
teacher's knowledge helped the child to acquire the more
formal ways of putting oral expression and inflection into
written form. Punctuation was thus wedded to meaning.
Dramatization proceeded in the same experimental way from
the direct play of reenacting past situations to a definite aware-
ness by the children of the need of preliminaries to enable
them to convey their impressions of incident or character to
others.

SOCIAL BASIS OF SELECTING MATERIAL

A large part of the art of teaching is to give thinking its
proper role as "a very present help in time of trouble" without
letting the child become confused or discouraged by too large
problems. The difficulties in choice of materials which chil-
dren can successfully use were much lessened as the objective
reactions of other teachers who had faced the same problems
and had objectively analyzed the reasons for success or failure,
became available. But always the value of individual experi-
ence and experimentation, whether by child or teacher, fur-
nished the necessary drive to further experimentation. The
work which was definitely labeled scientific experimentation

iThis field of experimentation for the teacher is still unlimited. The
danger with most teachers seems to be that of embarking upon enterprises
which require too much repetition of operations that require no thought
to carry one step to the succeeding one, such as the building of a too com-
plicated block-house or the wiring of a play city, in contrast to the wiring
of a puppet theater.

276 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

was always selected because of its social nature. The children's
natural interest was thus made the spring-board to experi-
mental action. With the older children, however, this developed
into more and more conscious experimentation, primarily di-
rected to the carrying out of their construction, but, with the
ulterior purpose on the part of the teacher, of planting in her
pupils' minds the beginning of fundamental scientific con-
cepts. As these concepts were truly fundamental, they con-
cerned practically everything attempted.

EXPERIMENTAL DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS

The way in which these general ideas took form historically
was found very helpful to the teacher in arranging conditions
for the children's experiments and in choosing those experi-
ences which would help them to understand and formulate
definite physical and biological theories in later school years.
In all cases man's relation to the physical environment, his
control of its forces and resources, led to what may be described
as a general scientific interest. The best illustration of such an
enlarging interest was the way in which the child's idea of the
earth's place in relation to the rest of the solar system de-
veloped in spiral fashion, year after year. The history of
mathematics deals first with the gropings of the past, and in
them the teacher discovers how certain mathematical tools
originated. He realizes that fundamental concepts have become
familiar to the expert— they are the first tools to his hand. He
is, therefore, often quite unaware that the beginner cannot
use these concepts intelligently unless they have been devel-
oped in the process of individual solving of some practical con-
struction difficulty. If the making of a simple pair of scales
has been part of a child's early experience, his mathematics
teacher can easily help him build the concept of an equation
upon a balance in equilibrium, or of proportion upon the re-
lation of gears. In later years in the more complicated but
similar problem of the compound lever, the child will find
the equation, here also, a useful tool.

The multitudinous character of present-day knowledge and

DEVELOPING SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS 277

the complexity of its processes can only be ordered and singled
out for educational purposes by sticking close to the idea that
the facts which a child learns only grow into ideas (facts act-
ing), knowledge, and wisdom by means of use in a consciously
directed activity. In this school, therefore, scientific subject-
matter, both as method and as an organized body of tested
facts and concepts, was regarded as the child's means (in ex-
perimental play) to a constant process of discovery and accom-
plishment in all areas of his experience. This is but another
name for learning. A brief summary of the science teacher's
records of the work in science follows: 2 "The guiding prin-
ciple, always of great help to a teacher selecting an activity
for a course of study, was its use in carrying the child on to
an understanding of larger relations. The test question about
an activity always was— were its processes such as would relate
themselves in the child's mind, as he carried them out, to the
great general ideas which represent the controlling factors of
all natural processes. Of such general ideas, those summed up
in what is called the law of the conservation of energy, the
various forms of reversible and irreversible transformations of
energy in the concepts of mass, motion, and momentum, are
necessarily the most fundamental. ... In making this choice
the teacher must be capable of seeing any process going on as
a result of an interaction of forces which can be controlled by
analysis, and which are subject to the same laws, no matter
how outwardly unlike they appear in manifestation. The first
force used by man, gravitation, illustrates the advantage gained
through the use of such a concept. It is so continually and
everywhere acting. Its very familiarity seems to have bred a
contempt which has resulted in ignoring its possibilities edu-
cationally. To introduce the child in a natural way to the
idea underlying the familiar process of weighing as the process
of measuring the pull of the earth is to give him a concept
of force which is his intellectual birthright in this twentieth
century. In the school, the identity of the notion of weight,
which the child already possessed, with this pull or force which

2 Katharine Camp, "The Place of General Ideas as Controlling Factors/'
Elementary School Teacher, February, 1904.

278 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

is acting upon him in common with all other things, and the
idea of its control and measurement were developed from
the very earliest years. . . . Anthropomorphic reasons for the
changes which the child sees going on about him were scrupu-
lously avoided. The causes of such changes were stated in terms
of such forces or motions as the child already understood, or
were not stated at all where such an explanation seemed im-
possible. This was the first step toward a scientific attitude.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE GROWTH OF IDEAS

"In his first cooking the experimenting child found, through
his quantitative work with the various cereals, that bulk and
weight are not synonymous terms. He further discovered that
weight is the only standard by which he could find the amount
of water needed for each kind of cereal. This is a great ad-
vance. When he carries over this idea of the use of weight in
the particular instance, that of finding the proper amount of
water for his cereal, into its use as a universal measure he has
made another step. He is then ready to gain some conception
of the adaptation of this force to man's advantage such as in
primitive uses of water power and falling weights. He is able
to translate what he sees going on about him, the falling
mountain-range, the grinding rocks rolled along by the spring
floods as they tear away the land or the waves pounding on
the shore, as other manifestations of this same force. When a
child recognizes that the wave-motions in a small pond, where
he directly controls their direction and amount, are the same
in miniature as the wave-motion in lake or ocean, he is ready,
though it may be in the form of but a dim feeling, to realize
the motion of the earth as it sweeps him past the sun and stars
by day and night. He can then intelligibly carry his notion
of day and night and the revolution of the moon about the
earth over into a comprehension of the yearly journey of the
earth about the sun. He will seize with delight the notion of
the circling planets as they, as well as the earth, revolve about
the sun. The whirling top, the swinging pendulum, and the

DEVELOPING SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS 279

sling shot will then carry with them such association as will
gradually build up a usable concept of force and motion. In
the school, children of eight were able to develop a rational sys-
tem of weights and measures through this notion of mass and
bulk. Children of nine carried the same idea farther through
some practical application of the principle of specific gravity.

"The notion of the increase of force as proportional to the
velocity of a moving mass comes very early in the experience
of a running boy, and it is possible, with proper apparatus,
early to clarify the concept of this force of impact as dependent
upon velocity. Each child's experience contains vivid images
of force embodied in a rapidly moving train, in a body falling
from a great height, or of the increased danger in motor acci-
dents due to acceleration of speed. Associated with these images
is a vague idea that the force possessed by the train is related
to the rate and that of the body to the height from which it
has fallen. Or, again the ever-present interest of the child of
nine or ten in the locomotive can readily be tunied by experi-
ment into some idea of the relation of the mechanical energy
of the train to the chemical energy stored in the fuel used. This
can be further traced to the original source of that energy in
the plants which form the coal.

"On the biological side, in the school, observations of the
effect of the force of gravity on plants and animals began in
the kindergarten. The geotropism of roots, stems, and leaves
is an especially good point for experimentation with five-, six-,
and seven-year-old children and helps the child to a correct
conception of the plant as a living thing, moving and growing
under the same conditions as himself. The type of experi-
ment, often given later, which shows the lifting power of
germinating seed and the strength of the growing stem and
shoot was also tried at this time. The very definite response
with respect to posture of some of the lower animal forms to
the force of gravitation was one of the earliest ways of helping
the child to discriminate between the apparently voluntary and
the involuntary motions of animals in his observation of lower
forms of life. Later, an analysis of the more ordinary muscular

28o THE DEWEY SCHOOL

movements was attempted to bring out the principle of use of
the force involved. An analysis of locomotion was made to show
that it is a continuous forward fall, in which the attitude of
greatest security involves the principle of placing the center
of gravity with reference to the base of support. . . .

"Experiments which demonstrate the dependence of animal
life upon vegetable and of vegetable life upon inorganic mate-
rial were used to develop the fundamental conception of the
dependence of all life on solar energy. The continual repeti-
tion of such experiments year by year involved more and more
analysis of the forces concerned."

It is important to recognize that the great scientific develop-
ment of the nineteenth century originated in the need for
and development of an intelligent control of the processes of
manufacture. This is the clue to the educational value of a
study of the industrial processes. The interests of both child
and teacher, however, must never center scientifically in the
logical use and control of any one particular process. The scien-
tific principle involved must be worked out not only for that
process; it must be widely applied also and related by the child
to the great natural forces which his tiny process parallels.
Thus in consecutive years the child was helped to build up
certain concepts of the character of solution. This was begun
with a solution such as salt in water. In studying the various
uses of salt in flavoring and preserving food the following
ideas of solution were developed through the children's ob-
servations, questions, and experiments. The first was always
the disappearance of the solid in the liquid; that it was divided
up evenly throughout the liquid; that it could be recovered
by evaporating the liquid; that the weight of the solution was
always equal to the sum of the liquid and the solid. They also
learned some of the common tests for concentration in solu-
tion such as the use of brine strong enough to float an egg. All
their experiences in solution found use in the understanding
of digestion as the process of making food soluble through the
action of ferments so that it could pass through membranes
into circulation and be made available to all the tissues. The
passing through membranes was illustrated by simple experi-

DEVELOPING SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS 281

ments in osmosis. In their later study of plant and animal
life many occasions arose for the use of this knowledge.

The growth of this ability to liken causes, that of his own
small experiment to that of a natural force and similarly to
compare the effects of both, helps the child to recognize that
the underlying principle of both is similar, and that it is also
the principle which is essential to his desired end. He thus
comes naturally into the possession of the scientific method
which is the key to intellectual power in any field of knowl-
edge. He will do this without divorcing the play of emotion,
and color of feeling from his thinking.

A science teacher in this school had to have at command a
conception of the great general ideas of science, and of their
function as the factor by which man controls the natural world
before she was equipped to select material for a course of study
in science with a group of elementary children. The type of
scientific material chosen and the method of its teaching were
always dependent upon the psychological age of the child. From
this point of view two stages of development are recognized
in the years of the elementary period, the one differentiated
from the other by the child's growing ability to abstract con-
sciously and, therefore, to formulate and classify. As this latter
ability increases the child gradually enters the second stage o£
his development or growth— the period of classification and
formulation.

EXPERIMENTATION IN THE ELEMENTARY PERIOD

3 The objection has been made that until the elementary
period is passed, experimental work finds no place in the school
curriculum, that science work, or nature study, should be ob-
servational in method. The objection seems to hold only when
experimentation is regarded from the adult point of view, as a
basis for abstract formulation. When an experiment is used as
an illustration and a form of expression, it becomes a means of

a Much of the remainder of this chapter, except as indicated, is taken from
an article by Katherine Camp, "Science in Elementary Education/* Ele-
mentary School Record f September, 1900.

282 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

utilizing and training the child's natural spirit of investigation,
and the above objection loses force. Taken in connection with
some social activity in which the child is engaged, experiments
serve as valuable illustrations. They are simplifications of the
complicated processes he has been observing. Any child who is
allowed to play freely constantly constructs his own playthings.
Soon he will be found freely experimenting with his materials
and environment. It was found desirable to utilize this desire
for expression through this kind of constructive activity, and
experimental work was included in the curriculum with the
youngest children.

In the first stage of growth until the child is seven or eight
years of age, the selection of suitable activities, which take ad-
vantage of the physical, chemical, and biological facts that con-
stantly come under the observation of the modern child, was
found to be more of a social problem than a scientific one. The
activities were selected, therefore, primarily for their social,
rather than their scientific value. (The term scientific is here
used in the specialized sense, meaning the formulation and
classification of facts from the distinct points of view of the
physicist, the chemist, the biologist, or the astronomer.) Scien-
tifically considered, therefore, the main problem during this
period is to select and reinforce the fundamental phases of the
processes concerned in these social activities by making them
concretely visible.

During the latter half of this stage of growth, on the social
side, typical occupations were chosen with great care. Similarly,
on the scientific side, much thought was used in the selection of
those illustrations which are typical of the action of the phys-
ical forces studied. A child's interest in plants and animals
is in direct connection with their relation to man. The condi-
tions of physical environment should be taken up only as fur-
nishing occasions and material for definite social activities,
which a young child carries through with great satisfaction. At
this age, however, memory of the process as something to be
repeated and adapted to slightly altered circumstances, does
not exist. Until children are seven years of age, sometimes older,
while there is recognition of objects, there is rarely any distinct

DEVELOPING SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS 283

memory of process. Such memory comes only with the more or
less conscious formulation of the process as a means to an end.
The six-year-old children of the school began with an occu-
pation in which conditions were similar to those of their own
actual environment. They next took up some specialized forms
of this ocupation in which the conditions, such as the changes
of the seasons, are in contrast to their own. Only important
differences, such as the lengthened day and the greater height
of the sun in the sky, were considered in connection with a
product of their activity, such as wheat in the North and sugar-
cane in the South. The advance in civilization through dis-
covery and invention, as developed in primitive occupations,
was the topic for the next year.

While carrying on these primitive occupations, the children
naturally passed from the unreflective period, just as the race
has done, into a reflective one. They began to be concerned with
the consideration of process. The discussion of the Iron Age
supplied a demand for the construction of a smelting oven. This
was made of day and was of considerable size. Its construction
required much effort. In the first attempt the draft was not
right, as the mouth of the furnace was not in proper relation
to the vent, both as to size and position. Instruction in the
principles of combustion and the nature of drafts was needed.
It is of great importance in such teaching that the teacher
keep her twofold purpose constantly in view: (i) to provide the
child with opportunity to develop and use, thereby learning,
great scientific truths, and (2) to preserve, through use, the
child's instructive spirit of inquiry, to build in his mind a con-
cept of scientific method as a practical tool and thereby guide
him into the experimental, the scientific habit of mind.

It was found that at eight years a child begins to show in-
terest in larger physical and social relations, and the spirit of
adventure often flutters its wings. In this school a study of ex-
ploration and discovery at this time introduced a variety of
social conditions. Curiosity about the whole physical world was
strongly manifested, and a brief history of the world from a
bare, bald rock to its present condition was the starting point
for the consideration of the chief geographical forms. At the

284 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

same time, in their study o£ occupations geographical setting
was considered in its connection with social life. In the pre-
ceding year the children had relived various types of early com-
munal life and had chosen their site as suited to their occupa-
tions. In this year actual conditions and historical social events
were studied in their geographical location. Stated from the
adult's standpoint, the points taken up were the zonal dis-
tribution of plants and animals, the trade-winds, and the char-
acter of the atmosphere in its relation to life. The main purpose
was to build up in the child's mind an idea of the physical world
as a whole and at the same time to relate his social interest to
definite areas in widely separated parts of the world. About
this age the children were able to carry on experiments which
they knew illustrated general conditions, or which were in re-
lation to the discovery or use of certain facts or a force of nature
by the particular people under consideration. Their approach
to the zonal distribution of plants, for example, may have been
made through the discovery of wheat by a tribe of primitive
people. This led the group to various lines of speculation as to
how wheat-seed was first brought to this locality, what sort of
climate it required, and other specific questions. These in turn
opened up general questions of seed dispersal, distribution of
plants according to climatic conditions, and other questions of
plant relations and, in response to the alert interest of the
children, developed into a course in plant physiology and
ecology which had been from the beginning, in the mind of the
teacher, a part of the science program.

This alert curiosity about and keen interest in all life, both
plant and animal, was the result of a careful stimulation of the
child's natural impulses to observe and investigate his world.
This desire to know more about the needs of plant life, its
preservation and reproduction, led naturally, therefore, into
a continually enlarging course of study of plant life and plant
relations.* The course dealt with the life processes of the plant,
especially those of nutrition, assimilation, growth, and irri-

* Course developed for the most part by Katherine Andrews who worked
under the guidance and in dose collaboration with Prof. John M. Coulter
of the University.

DEVELOPING SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS 285

lability, with the plant's relation to animals and to other plants,
with the influences of soil, moisture, and other environmental
conditions upon the plant, and with the influence of plants
upon their environment and geographical conditions. Form
and structure were emphasized only where they illustrated the
adaptations to function made by the plant. From this point of
view the shape and character of leaves and stems were regarded
as important only so far as they are related to light. The flower
was important only in its relation to reproduction. The use of
technical terms was avoided so far as possible, though given
the children if necessary.

From a wealth of material for study, choice was made of that
which was appropriate to the season, had some relation to the
work of the group in other branches, and did not present too
many difficulties. One group of children, nine years of age, be-
gan the work in the fall with the story of seed dispersal. They
first observed and classified all the seeds they found according
to their adaptations for dispersal, whether by wind, water, ani-
mals, or violent discharge from the seed-pod. Later these same
children carried out some simple experiments in nutrition,
respiration, and transpiration.5 The following experiment
which proved the weight of air, even to the most skeptical child,
was part of a series of experiments to discover the sources of the
food of plants. The added inference by the children that air
has weight, was unexpected to the teacher: 6

Each child carefully weighed a pot and filled it with dry loam,
weighed the pot again, and computed the weight of the loam. He
then weighed a bean seed and planted it in the known quantity of
loam. The pots were put in a favorable place for growth and kept
watered. Account was kept of the amount of water put upon the
plant during the experiment. When the seedling was about six
indies high, it was taken out of the pot, and both, seedling and earth
were thoroughly dried and weighed. In all cases the children found
an excess in weight of the earth and the seedling (seven grams)
over the earth and bean. This greatly surprised some of the children,
as they thought a plant's food came only from the earth; others said

sKatherine Andrews, "Experiments in Plant Physiology," Elementary
School Record, No. 4 (May, 1900).
6 Ibid.

5>86 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

they knew plants took in air through their leaves and that had
caused the extra weight. An additional experiment was made to
prove to some skeptical children that air has weight by showing its
pressure. One child thought that the water put upon the plant
might have contained something dissolved in it which would not
evaporate. So a quantity of water equal to that upon the plant was
evaporated and the remaining solids found to weigh one-tenth of a
gram. As this would not account for the seven grams, they consid-
ered their original conclusion correct.

In further experiments the children worked out the rela-
tions of air and water currents to the varying pressure pro-
duced by the expansion of the air by heat. In developing a
problem such as the trade-winds, a child of this age takes only
general features—the motion of the winds as produced by the
motion of the earth, the pouring in toward the equatorial re-
gions of the heavy, cold air from the north and south, and
the forcing upward of the broad belt of air heated by a tropic
sun. When local weather conditions were studied, the condi-
tions of the child's own environment were taken as a starting
point. No detailed or continuous weather observations were
made.

By this time the children had a fairly definite idea of the
world as a whole. It was to them a rock ball, on which the
continents are slight elevations covered with a thin soil pro-
duced by the crumbling of the rock. They pictured this ball
surrounded by great bodies of water in which warm and cold
currents circulate and modify the climates of the shores. It is
covered with an atmosphere, a medium of exchange, by means
of which the most important conditions of life— water, light,
and heat— are distributed. They thought of it as covered with
plant and animal life, its kind and abundance being deter-
mined by physical environment For the most part they had a
fairly definite idea of the chief causes affecting climate and
the zonal distribution of plants and animals, and of man's con-
tinuous control and adaptation of conditions about him.7

7 Mrs. Ailing Aber's book on An Experiment in Education will give teach-
ers a concrete illustration of how this work was first carried through suc-
cessfully with children.

DEVELOPING SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS 287

In their experiments with plants these nine-year-old chil-
dren demonstrated the dependence of both plant and animal
life upon these elements and the conditions, and upon each
other.

A strong, growing leaf was submerged in a glass of water and put
in direct sunlight. Bubbles which the children recognized as a gas
were seen to come off from the leaf. They noticed that these bubbles
came off faster in strong sunlight and ceased altogether when the
glass was placed in darkness. To find out the nature of the gas,
some was collected by putting algae in a large beaker of water and
a funnel over the plants. A test-tube was filled with water and in-
verted over the stem of the funnel, so that the mouth of the tube
was just under the water. The beaker was placed in strong light, and
as the bubbles arose they were led into the test-tube through the
funnel and displaced the water in the tube. When enough had col-
lected to test, the children applied a glowing splinter to the gas and
found that it burst into flame, proving the gas to be oxygen. A
strong, healthy plant was then put under a bell-jar together with a
small beaker of clear lime water. Fresh air from outdoors was in-
closed in the jar and the rim covered with vaseline so that no air
could get in. The bell-jar was covered with a black cloth so that the
plant would be under night conditions. The next morning a white
coating was found on the lime water, which the children knew
showed the presence of carbon dioxide.

From these experiments the children concluded that two
processes went on, one a giving out of oxygen and the other
a giving out of carbon dioxide. They knew that the air con-
tained oxygen, which was taken in by animals and converted
into carbon dioxide, and they saw that the process of respira-
tion was similar in plants. But the quantity of oxygen given
off was much greater than the amount of carbon dioxide, for
there were many bubbles of oxygen coming from the sub-
merged plant, while the carbon dioxide (which they found to
come off in darkness) did not cause bubbling. This excess of
oxygen would keep the air in a condition fit for animals to
live in. They were told that the process of respiration went on
all the time, but only in sunlight could the plant take in
carbon dioxide and convert it, with the water and nutriment
derived from the soil, into starch and other food for the plant.

288 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

The presence of green matter in the leaves, as necessary to
the manufacture of food, was emphasized.

At nine years, sometimes as early as eight, the child's atti-
tude toward his work begins to change. Although both gen-
eralization and specialization in science come much later, yet
the method and spirit of his inquiry are modified at this age,
and he has entered upon what may be called the second
period of elementary education.

Physiography was chosen as the first subject to be lifted
out of its immediate relation to the activities of his tor}'. This
change in method was partly in response to the children's
dawning realization at ten years of the relation of means to
ends. It was also in response to their increasing ability to fol-
low one field of interest continuously and to deduce general,
uniform principles from their observations or experiments.
Physical geography was continued with the eleven-year-old
children and covered the general physical characteristics of
the whole United States. A change was made to a more defi-
nitely planned and, therefore, more formal method of treat-
ment. The children carried on their work by (i) discussion,
(2), written papers, (3) assigned reading, (4) construction of
putty relief maps of the chosen localities. In the following year
the class made a detailed study of the formation of the earth,
and especially of sedimentary rocks.

In all of the experimental work of the second growth period
the consciousness of the end to be attained was more definite,
and the processes necessary to attain that end were more in-
volved than in that of children in the first stage. During this
period as in the first, the activities are still carried on for their
own sake. They were, however, more consciously used as a
means to a result, which may be valuable to the child either
because of its social or its scientific interest. At this time the
child begins to experiment consciously. He initiates certain
conditions to find out what will happen. Instead of "Tell me
why this happens," he is apt to say, "Don't tell me, let me see
if I can find out myself."

In an article, "Astro-Geography" this anecdote is told which
indicates the children's ability to take large and comprehen-

DEVELOPING SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS 289

sive views of the physical and social world at the age of eight or
nine years.8

The members of a class were discussing plans for a year's work on
the history of Chicago. ... A small boy of eight very seriously
propounded the following problem which had evidently caused him
much thought: "Which do you think," he said, "is the best way to
study geography— to begin with your own place and go out, out, out,
until you reach the stars, or to begin with the stars and come in
and in until you reach your own place again?" He was told that peo-
ple differ as to the wisdom of either course, was reminded that
during the previous year he had studied about people who lived in
very different parts of the earth, and the present plan was to study
about his own locality. He accepted the answer, and seemed satisfied
to begin at home. While settling back contentedly, however, he
murmured: "But I shall get a book about the stars, anyway." This
story may indicate an unusual state of mind in an eight-year-old
child. Experience has proven, however, that children between eight
and nine take a large and universal view of their world much
oftener than they are given credit for so doing. . . .

The article continues:

A city child has so much of people and their many activities that
his naive attitude of wonder and delight in the heavenly bodies
may die still-born. It behooves both school and home, therefore, to
give him the chance which only the leisure of youth can afford, for
development of his genuine interest in the marvels of the countless
stars and immense distances of space. Neither should it be forgotten
that there is a great plasticity still inherent in the child's mind,
which makes possible the use of material that seems to the ordinary
adult mind too abstract or too remote to be suggestive. Furthermore,
a child eight or ten has no fear of any subject because of association,
no habit of regarding one problem as more difficult than another.
Points in astro-geography, as in physiography, which take an hour's
work with college students, were worked out by children of this age
in fifteen minutes. . . . Occasions often arise with very young chil-
dren when they note marked changes in length of day and night,
and of season. If reference to the causes of these changes is made in
a story form, the teacher can keep the ideas plastic and open to the
larger universal view, even though at the time the child may be
occupied with small results of the same changes, such as autumn
fruits, winter ice and snow, the planting of his garden, or the re-
turn of the birds in the spring. Seven-year-old children begin to ask

sKatherine Camp, "Astro-Geography for Children," The Elementary
School Teacher, Vol. IV, No. 5, 1904.

290 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

definitely for the story of the earth. Observation of the days of the
equinoxes and the relation of the Christmas holiday to the return
of the sun will help make the story of the seasons dramatic. Here
again, in connection with something they are carrying on, can be
introduced the explanation of the moon's phases, why the North
Star only seems stationary, and other stories to identify the guiding
stars of the heavens. By the use of globes and a strong light, a real
appreciation of the reason for the visible changing phases of the
moon may be easily demonstrated, also the periodic recurrence of
the eclipse. The detailed working out of the definite position of the
moon with relation to the sun and earth, which results in its differ-
ent phases, might better be left until two or three years later. It
was found that the child at this early age will learn to look for the
full moon rising in the east, as the sun disappears in the west, and
associate that eastern position with its relation to the sun.

Much experimental work, besides that given in connection
with the ecology of the lake region, was incidental to the study
of colonial industries. The various processes of the textile in-
dustries of colonial times were taken up in detail and included
the cultivation and preparation of wool, flax, and cotton. In
connection with the construction of some machines used in
the textile process studied, a most primitive type was studied
first to show man's first use of energy. The later forms fol-
lowed which illustrate a more complicated type involving a
change of the form of energy. In such a machine as the
spinning-wheel the three laws of machines take concrete form
as bringing about some desired end— the thread made. With
an understanding of the spinning-wheel as a background, a
child easily appreciates each step made in the invention of the
spinning-jenny, and its apparently complicated action is in-
telligently followed. He hails with delight each modification
which overcomes a difficulty.

GROWTH OF SCIENTIFIC METHOD IN COOKING

In his laboratory work in cooking, the child at the end of his
eighth year had completed a threefold classification of foods.
In the succeeding one, in his study of the physiology of diges-
tion, he attempted a more analytic look at each classification.
The effect of heat and water on carbohydrates, fats, and pro-

DEVELOPING SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS 291

teins was determined by means of detailed experiment. The
value of cooking as a preparation for digestion was learned.
In this way he made a general survey of the process of diges-
tion and gained some familiarity with it. The points taken
up, at this time, were general. The aim was to secure an idea
of the digestive process as a series of solutions accomplished
by fermentation, of the function of each part of the digestive
system, and, in a general way, of the relation of food to energy.
The detail of these processes, the particular chemical or phys-
ical force at work, did not concern him. All he wanted was
a simple illustration of "what happened": hence he was not
troubled by the fact that we do not know how it happens, or
in the true sense exactly what does happen. This sort of illus-
trative experimental work seems to fulfil requirements which
demand recognition of a problem, initiation on the child's
part, and utilization by him of means suggested by the teacher
to obtain an end which he appreciates and desires.

It was found necessary to take time each year to sum up
the general features of the year's work. Different avenues of
approach were used in making this summary. In one year,
with children of nine or ten, the geography of the whole world
was attempted from the mathematical point of view, the need
for the use of latitude and longitude in their historical work
furnishing the occasion.

STUDY OF THE EARTH BY TEN-YEAR-OLD CHILDREN

After this kind of preparation the child at ten years was
ready to take up the growth of the continent as a convenient
basis, on die geographic side, for gathering together all his
previous experience. A brief review was made of the various
theories of the earth's formation and its position in the solar
system as affecting climatic conditions. This was the starting
point for the consideration of the physical forces at work in
the formation of the continent of North America. As in the
fifth year, the child was led to sum up his knowledge and state
his conception of the earth as a rock ball whose surface
throughout long ages has taken definite shape by the inter-

THE DEWEY SCHOOL

action of forces which are still at work. The main purpose was
to help the child form a notion of the dynamic character of
the changes in the earth's surface, to see that its present condi-
tion is but one stage in a long series, and that the same forces
which acted in the past act still. In this way, he was led to
construct imaginatively the conditions which must have ob-
tained in very early stages of geological history. Here, as in
his previous reconstruction of physiographic conditions, his
images were of the most general character.

Experimentation accompanied this imaginative remaking of
the continent, in order to secure typical concrete illustrations
of such things as the action of a gas on a solid, the solution in
water of the solids changed by such action and the subsequent
crystallization of the solid from that solution, the solution of
a gas in a liquid, and of the conditions that determine, roughly
speaking, that solution. The physical characteristics connected
with the formation of the rocks in the various geologic ages
were taken up in more or less detail. The* amount of time thus
spent was determined by the possibility of actually reproduc-
ing some of the conditions which bring about the structure
considered.

ADAPTATION OF TOPICS TO INDIVIDUAL GROUPS FOR OLDER
CHILDREN

With older children, from ten to thirteen, many such ideas
can be worked out. Those which are involved in the construc-
tion of a sun-dial, of the day circle, the mapping of the chief
constellations, and the making of such a model of the solar
system as is suggested in Iles's Intuitive Geometry. One year's
work of the twelve-year-old children involved a review of the
geographical features of the historical setting studied and of
the work on general physical forces and zonal distribution,
etc., covered when the children were ten. The view of the
world as a whole was then dropped and taken up the follow-
ing year from the standpoint of physical geography and geol-
ogy. Even in the ninth year of school life, when the child is
between twelve and thirteen, the interest in formulation and

DEVELOPING SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS 293

classification as such was not strongly apparent. True sec-
ondary education in scientific subjects could not, therefore, be-
gin. The practical differentiation begun the previous year,
however, was carried farther with advantage during the year.
Practical considerations, as always, determined whether the
differentiation took a physical or a biological aspect. On the
biological side the natural sequence was a further study of the
existing types of animal life, kept in touch with the evolu-
tionary processes as briefly given the preceding year in the
geological study of North America.

Group X, at the age of thirteen years, took their first general
course in biology. This was planned to develop the idea of
animal life, began with simple forms, and ended with the
physiology of man. The course was centered on the function
of parts rather than a detailed study of the changes in form
of anatomical parts; it was accompanied by some experiments
in plant physiology, which emphasized the adaptation of plants
to environment, and was illustrated by the adaptation of
vegetation to a city's smoke and heat.

The theories of the formation of the earth as a part of a
nebulae, once like other nebulae seen today, were repeated
from year to year, and afforded an important and clear illus-
tration of the way in which scientific theories are formed only
to be replaced by others. The purpose of a theory as a work-
ing basis for thought became familiar to the children. For
years the study of science had been planned to build up in the
mind of the child a mental image of the physical and biological
processes of change and growth as a continuous round of the
freeing and utilization of energy. The physical forces of gravity,
heat, light, electricity were seen as factors in the process, some-
times tearing down and at others building up. During these
years practically the whole story of life and growth had been
presented in terms of family life and in relation to its require-
ments for food, shelter, and clothing. Various activities, chosen
because of their social worth, illustrated these processes in more
specific fashion and made the ideas of solution, evaporation,
crystallization, and precipitation concrete to the child. Solids,
liquids, and gases became familiar forms of matter. Over and

294 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

over the story of the earth was told, the formation of the rocks
and soil and the parts that air and water, heat and light play
in the life of plants and animals. From the very beginning the
concept of gravity as the pull of the earth on matter was
presented to the children. They rediscovered the use of weights
and measures as a way of finding the amount of the pull or
gravitation, of the scales as a device for finding equal pulls or
for the comparison of quantity as obtained by measurement,
and of mass as measured by the pull of the earth. At eight years
the child had formulated a rational system of weights and
measures; a year later he understood something of the laws of
falling bodies and recognized the motion of the pendulum as
governed by the same laws. Constant reference of this sort to
illustrations of this force acting in the world about him had
made the child's idea more and more explicit, until in his
work on machines he was ready to use the notion of measur-
ing work by units of weights carried through units of space.
Through his own observations he could interpret the effects of
the ever-acting gravitational force on animals and plants and
as used in the barometer and water-power.

In the same way other topics were taken up in this spiral
fashion. The part that plants play in rendering the energy
from the sun available to animals was developed. The idea
of time and its measurement was related year after year to the
rotation of the earth on its axis and around the sun, as the
cause of the change of the seasons and of day and night. Each
year the concept of the earth as a whole and in its relations to
the sun and in the solar system grew in clarity and meaning.

SPECIAL SCIENTIFIC TOPICS

When the school closed, two of the groups had arrived at
the point where they profitably pursued special scientific topics.
They studied general biology from the evolutionary point of
view, and special aspects of physics as well as mathematics were
successfully taught them by graduate students in the University.
A course in physiography supplemented one in sanitation given
in connection with the choice of the club-house site. All of

DEVELOPING SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS 295

the courses, with the exception of the last, were taught by
graduate students who were at the same time doing special
\vork under the many specially gifted lecturers and teachers
then gathered in the University of Chicago. All were chosen
by the Director because their major interest lay in the par-
ticular subject taught.9

It was felt that during the nine years of the school's curricu-
lum the use made of observation and experimental activities
accomplished certain definite results. Those who observed the
children felt they had attained to a measure of skill and readi-
ness in the use of the experimental method of inquiry, had
gained a general conception of die dependence of the various
forms of life upon each other and upon the inorganic world,
had given evidence that their general interest in what happens
in an experiment had passed over into an interest in how the
thing happens, and in addition, had learned the use of books
as sources, not only of information, but also of the condensed
conclusions of other men's observations. They were ready, in
all respects, for the more specialized work of the secondary
period. Such a child would be in no danger of assuming too
soon and too rigidly the attitude of the specialist. He would
be able to choose a point of view from which to regard any
set of natural conditions whether geological or biological, with-
out shutting out the interaction of one field of observation
upon the others. The machine with which he would perform
experiments in the physical laboratory would never be to him,
as it is now to many, a unique and isolated invention of the
laboratory, but would find its place as a means of analysis of
all the various forms of machines in use about him. Further-
more, his interest in nature would never be that of the col-
lector pure and simple, but rather that of the scientific natural-
ist whose collections have some specific and definite aim. The
children of this school had lived through a continuous series
of concrete experiences, in which each used his own acquired
method of experimentation and logical reasoning as his guide

a Biology, George Carrey; physics, A. T. Jones, A. T. Stewart; mathe-
matics, Anne Moore, W. S, Hart; physiography, Wallace Atwood; sanitation,
Althea Hanner.

296 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

for further planning. There was for them no danger of a too
narrow specialization in any subject, for with such training
no subject could be tightly boxed off from life. In general, it
was felt that the school's use of experimental and observational
science accomplished in some measure the training of a con-
structive and inquiring mind and thus fully justified its place
in elementary education* The most important result of all
was that these children felt no fear when entering a new en-
vironment or attacking a new field of work.

SCIENTIFIC AND EDUCATIONAL USE OF COOKING

The activity of cooking is in itself its own reason for being.
It constantly furnishes incentives to attempt new problems
and can, therefore, be used to great advantage with children.
The choice of the subject-matter for cooking in the school
was always in direct relation to an occasion of great importance
to every one— the group luncheon. The occasion thus became a
natural opportunity to show hospitality to others. The motive
for each child's learning how to cook was, therefore, a genuinely
social one— to achieve a result which was palatable not only
to himself but to others. The clear proof of social gain lay
in success as a pudding maker. Moreover, because a good pud-
ding was a desideratum for all, a spirit of free interchange of
ideas, suggestions, and results in failure and success, imbued
the embryo cooks.

What was cooked was always chosen with a view to its con-
nection with the other activities of the program. Cooking
involved fundamental relations to the physical and social en-
vironment and gave a reason for the study of geography, of
plants and animals. It was the activity around which the child
saw all the simple social and economic relationships organize
and centralize themselves in his study of primitive ways of
living. From a scientific point of view also, cooking as the use
of heat and water on food and the physical and chemical
changes which result proved a rich source of material illustra-
tive of the various transformations of energy from sunlight
to that necessary to human needs and uses. In addition it gave

DEVELOPING SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS 297

unexcelled opportunities for the use of the experimental
method. The necessary facts, technical skills, and ways of do-
ing, charged with an organic emotional interest, were imbedded
in experience through continuous use in more and more com-
plicated operations. \Vhile cooking was something the child
could do in company with others, through the laboratory-
like arrangement of the kitchen, he was individually responsi-
ble for the success of his own portion, and the social end was
not permitted to overpower or befog his joy in discovery by
actual performance. Each time he cooked he was guided to
find that his method was general to all kinds of cooking. This
method lay in the order of the technical steps or was discovered
in some principle, such as solution, necessary as a means of con-
trol, and which, still later, he found himself using in a more
complicated process. With children of six, seven, and eight
years, the cooking of cereals was progressively educational in
so many ways that it developed into a continuous course of
study throughout these three years with no sense of monotony
on the part of either pupils or teacher.10

"As used in the Laboratory School the activity of cooking
supplied the child with a genuine motive and the medium
for its expression; it gave him a chance for first-hand experi-
ence; and it brought him into contact with realities. It did
all this, but in addition it was liberalized throughout by transla-
tion into its historic and social values and scientific equivalen-
cies. With the growth of the child's mind in knowledge and
power it ceases to be a pleasant occupation merely and becomes
more and more a medium, an instrument, and an organ of
understanding, and is thereby transformed."

Therefore, cooking held a distinctive place in the curriculum
of the school. Its successful use was primarily due to the fact
that its program was planned and directed by two teachers ia-
whose training in the scientific and practical aspects of house-
hold arts was coupled with wide teaching experience. The
program began in the kindergarten, and the work was adjusted
to the different psychological age periods. At the end of seven

10 John Dewey, The School and Society, p. s?o.

11 Althea Harmer and Katherine Camp.

298 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

years it was an adequate working program. A complete series
of materials to be used in the program was listed, together
with the accompanying and correlating scientific experiments
which clarified and illustrated the general principle or process
central in any lesson. A great help to this success was the fact
that some time previous to this experiment, Mrs. Ellen H.
Richards of the Massachusetts' Institute of Technology had
worked out in theory as well as in practice what was after-
wards called "the free-hand method of teaching cooking." This
method presupposed a knowledge of the constituents of food,
of the effect of controlled application of heat, and of the
processes of solution and fermentation, which should make any
housekeeper independent of recipes and creative in her cook-
ing. Through Pratt and Drexel Institutes, where the teachers
had been trained, much information and material, as well as
detailed results of work with large classes of older girls and
teachers, were available. In both, the work had been organized
on the technical side and in its bearings on health, hygiene,
dietetics, and sanitation. No experiments, however, with chil-
dren of elementary age had been made. The problem in the
school, then, became one of adapting to little children the
successful courses already planned and in practical use with
older girls. Many persons in the field of household economics
were intensely interested in the experiment and were most
generous with their suggestions and advice. The experience at
Pratt Institute, especially in the adaptation of the equipment
to the needs of younger children, can hardly be overestimated.

From the point of view of the teacher of general science,
the course in cooking afforded more opportunity for the de-
velopment of the scientific method than any other activity
carried on in the school, with the possible exception of garden-
ing, the general geography of the earth and atmosphere, and
some of the textile processes. The equipment, although planned
with an emphasis upon economy, was complete and practical.
The cooking tables were of the sort that could be adapted by
means of stools to the heights of the children.

The experience of the first year brought out certain points
on the basis of which the succeeding year's experiment was

DEVELOPING SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS 299

altered and improved. It was found there was no need to stimu-
late the child's interest by allowing him to choose the particular
things to be cooked. Some of the things attempted were beyond
the technical capacities of the children to realize. It is diffi-
cult for one who has not shared such an experiment to ap-
preciate how great is a child's interest in the simplest processes
in the preparation of food, and how keen is his observation of
them. Even the ordinary preparation of food, however, proved
so complicated that it was necessary in the succeeding years to
progressively simplify the things which each child did in order
to preserve in him a sense of an effective control of the process.

During the first three years the cooking was done as far as
the child consciousness was concerned for the sake of the im-
mediate product or end. The children prepared some one thing,
each child contributing his proportion to the whole. In this
way each felt the responsibility of the result not only for him-
self but for the whole class, so that the social end reinforced
the immediate one. This interest in the immediate result so
overshadowed the steps in the processes he was watching that
very little use could be made, from a scientific point of view,
of the important physical and chemical changes going on.
Observation was incidental to securing good results, and the
reasons for certain indications received little attention until
after the first year and a half, when a few general principles
were worked out while the actual cooking was going on. The
children during this period spent most of their time in "sci-
ence" work on the materials used in cooking.

Somewhere between the ages of eight and ten a change in
the interest takes place, and the thing is done with more con-
scious reference to technique and to what might be termed
the intellectual side. The child comes to see that if he un-
derstands the reasons for what he is doing, he can carry
on a number of other operations of the same general class.
This made necessary a change in the way in which the work
was given. Even the simplest operation in cooking has so many
conditions that it is impossible for the child to select those
bringing about a certain result that is important for him. So
at this stage simple experiments were introduced where con-

3oo THE DEWEY SCHOOL

ditions were so controlled that he was able to draw a needed
inference and get hold of a general principle. For example,
the effect of heat on albumen was worked out by first finding
out the way in which the temperature of the water could be
determined from its appearance— thus were worked out the
scalding, simmering, and boiling points. The next step was to
subject a little white of egg to each temperature for varying
lengths of time— drawing thence such inferences as the fol-
lowing: "The egg albumen had a very few threads in it at
140, at 160 it is jelly-like, and at 212 it is tough," "When
albumen is boiling, it is very hard, and at simmering, it is very
nice and tender/' After these underlying principles were
grasped, the work became more deductive, so to speak. It was
treated more as applied science. Extracts from a simple clear
account of the way this course was taught, written by the
teacher who was mainly responsible for its success follow: 12

For the youngest children foods such as cereals and fruits were
selected since these required the simplest preparation and little
variation in the manipulation of materials. The children's real in-
terest was in the active work, the luncheon which they prepared
and served, after receiving careful direction either in words or by
demonstration. The value of the work was in the nice handling and
careful use of materials and in the forming of habits of neatness
and order. All this helped to create order not only in doing things
of a practical nature, but also in their thinking and planning. It
was similar to the organized play of the kindergarten in its influence
on the social organization of the group. The observations made
during the progress of the work were valuable as emphasizing a
few regularly recurring phenomena.

In the interests of simplicity, part of the luncheons were brought
from home in the form of sandwiches, and a drink of hot dilute
cocoa was generally served. The clearing away and dishwashing
were as much enjoyed as any other part of the process. This once-a-
week school luncheon was the result of dose cooperation of the
parents with the teacher. In this way the lacking vegetables and
meat were supplemented at home on these days.

The cooking had particular educational value for the younger
children in giving opportunity for individual work, initiative, and

"Althea Harmer, "Elementary Cooking in the Laboratory School,"
The Elementary School Teacher, Vol. Ill, No. 10, 1903,

DEVELOPING SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS 301

independence. It also called for group work and encouraged a
spirit of helpfulness and nice adjustment of personalities to the
work of the group as a whole. It made an appeal to children which
was immediate and direct and was of such a nature that it could
be arranged in orderly sequence. Beginning with the simple prep-
aration of food to be served for luncheon, the children became in-
terested in the material used and in the processes involved in the
preparation of these materials. This made it possible to introduce
simple experiments previous to the cooking and enabled them to
work out the formulae and steps used in the preparation of the
food. The logical sequence of this work formed simple and direct
habits of thinking and acting. These were built upon and developed
in later work where processes were more involved, where the inter-
action of the work among the children required a finer adjustment
of each individual to the social life of the group.

The work as given to six-year-old children changed somewhat in
character as regards the manner of its presentation. This change was
in accord with the corresponding change in the attitude of the chil-
dren. The materials were the same, that is, cereals and fruits. Grains
were selected on account of then* relation to the course on Present
Occupations, which began with the study of a typical grain farm.
The interest in the cooking started with the desire the child has to
carry further the work of the farmer and the miller and follow the
food from its preparation to its final use. The grains also furnished
the simplest illustration of the effect of heat and water on the
starch and cellulose in preparing them for digestion.

At the beginning of the cooking period the class with the teacher
gathered in a semi-circle at a blackboard. The various preparations
of cereals were examined, and the methods of preparation con-
sidered. By means of actual experiments the children compared the
different preparations as to difference in time required for their
cooking. The reasons for this difference were developed. In cooking
each preparation they worked out some new point in the applica-
tion of heat and water. The work started with the simplest use of
fire and water and their effect on the starch granules of the cereal
grain. The points brought out were the effect of the mechanical
breaking up of the cellulose and of water on the starch granules,
so that mastication, taste, and all other processes of digestion were
more easily accomplished. The idea that grinding the grains shortens
the process of cooking was then introduced. Experiments were made
to show in a general way the composition of the grain, the differ-
ence in the relative amounts of starch and cellulose in the various
grains, and the different preparations of grain found in the market,
such as the hulled, cracked, ground, or flaked varieties.

Fruits and vegetables were selected the following year because

3os> THE DEWEY SCHOOL

the problems involved in their preparation grew naturally out of
the material as used. From experiments suggested by actual work
and formulated in class discussion, the children were led to solu-
tions of the problems as they arose.

The starch and cellulose found in the cereals studied the
previous year were now found in varying conditions in fruits
and vegetables. The value of water as a food constituent was
brought out, as were the flavoring principles, such as the es-
sential oils, vegetable acids, sugar, and mineral salts. These
were considered, o£ course, with the younger children more in
the part they have in giving character and flavor to the veg-
etable than in any nutritive value they possess.

In the experiments made in this year the interest was in
seeing what happened and in making discoveries. The purpose
of the experiment was often lost in the interest of the im-
mediate program. Therefore the connection was made by the
teacher between the purpose of the experiment and the problem
to be solved. Though only a phase of the work, this formed
a new problem for the children. For example, the potato was
to be cooked. The child was led to compare it with the cereals
previously studied. This led to an analysis of the potato which
completely engrossed him for the time being. After he had dis-
covered all he could about the potato, he was thrown back to
the original problem of how to cook it. This at once called
for an application of the facts discovered in the experiments.
The fact that such experimentation was continuous through-
out the year, and that results were always made use of to some
practical end, gave added value to each experiment. Each be-
came part of a larger whole. The original problem thus grew
larger and showed many sides.

In these practical activities the child also came to have some
idea of the real value of number. He used parts of a cup, as
units; he then got the relation of these units to a larger whole;
and he began to have an idea of simple fractions. From the
manipulation of materials, and comparison of these by weight
and measure, he got, in a concrete way, a definite idea of pro-
portion which later on was made use of in his study of ab-
stract number. In connection with the balancing of the grains

DEVELOPING SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS 303

to obtain the amount of water required by each, recipes were
made for their cooking. He discovered the practical importance
of the recipe: just what it is used for, namely, to give the ma-
terials and quantities required.

In connection with the history the children took up primi-
tive modes of cooking out-of-doors. In this connection they
considered primitive methods of applying of heat, such as
roasting in hot ashes, on hot metal or stones, boiling by means
of hot stones in water or buried in the ground. The children
had two or three primitive feasts where they cooked potatoes,
corn, apples, chestnuts, and some sort of meat. Application of
heat under these new conditions served as an occasion for the
child to abstract the principle he had been using in connec-
tion with modern methods and apparatus. This abstraction
was a necessary step in the control of the primitive fireplace.

With the older children the preparation and cooking of
proteins was taken up. The cooking of eggs, meats, and fish
was followed by a review of the milk and vegetable soups and
was concluded with the preparation of batters and doughs by
means of the various raising agents.

During 1898-1899 and 1899-1900, the cooking program de-
veloped to such an extent that the practical work was turned
over to an assistant.13 The attention of the directing teacher was
then devoted to relating the processes of cooking to physiology
and especially to nutrition and hygiene. This course was with
the older children and, in its experimental approach, was de-
veloped and carried on with the collaboration of the science
teachers.

Since experience showed that cooking was the activity in
which the children most easily learned the use of the scientific
method, a detailed account of the way they thought through
for themselves the necessary steps in their daily procedure fol-
lows. At the beginning of a lesson the proper utensils were
gotten out and arranged in order of use and suitability to the
cooking to be done. Then, with a view to softening and de-
veloping the flavor of the grain cooked, they developed, by

is Mary Tough.

THE DEWEY SCHOOL

discussion, the relation of amount or mass cooked to the unit
of liquid needed, and of the form of cereal to the time re-
quired. Next, through measuring and weighing, volume and
mass, or bulk, became practical working conceptions. It was
phrased thus by one of the children: "We took two cups of
flaked rice to one cup of water because it is so light; one-
quarter a cup of whole rice takes one cup of water." Then
they learned to distinguish between the different factors which
controlled the amount of water needed, the length of time for
cooking, the extent of surface of pan exposed to air, and the
amount of heat to be applied. Each member of the group
followed a different way of preparing the same food. The vari-
able factors were thus sifted out. In one case this would be the
amount of water, in another the character of the cereal, or in
another the way of applying heat In all the type of utensil
was kept the same.

The technical sequence was worked out by the children as
a group. Individual variations from the group plan were made
by original children and were recognized and welcomed by
both teacher and children. Group discussion clarified the part
each one took in the experimental process. The class was held
as a group until each individual felt confident that he knew
what to do. It was found by observation of the teachers that
with the younger children, attitude and expression indicated
when the moment had come to cut short the talking and pro-
ceed to work. With the older children, the interest in the form
of expressing what they were about to undertake increased very
rapidly as they became more and more conscious of the need
for clarity of method in recording the results of their experi-
mental work. Perfectness of detail came first in acquiring the
technique of procedure. This was the same in all classes. For
example, two small boys worked out a cooperative scheme of
work which enabled them, through elimination of useless mo-
tions and combination of effort, to finish ten to fifteen minutes
ahead of the others. This time they proceeded to use either
in writing up what they had done, or in acquiring skill in
number work in which they felt themselves deficient

The teacher's part was to answer questions and by a skilful

2

2

5

DEVELOPING SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS 305

refreshing of the children's memories to insure that plans for
the day were workable and also different enough in character
to furnish a new experience involving a problem for the group.
This was only possible when the teacher's experience already
held in conscious readiness the general principles underlying
the course. She shared the enterprise of discovery with the child.
She functioned in bringing together various results and in as-
sisting the children to trace back effects to causes. She thus
helped each child to become conscious of the general principles,
however concretely stated, resulting from their combined ef-
forts.

This more or less uniform plan of classroom procedure de-
veloped into a method during the second year of the school.
The time given to cooking varied from one and a half to two
hours a week. The period was always divided into two parts,
a half-hour of which was spent in planning and experimenta-
tion. With the younger children, this half-hour was on the
same day as the luncheon and just before it. With the older
children, especially toward the end of each three months, the
period was used for formulation of the principles of cooking,
which served as a practical review of the quarter's work. The
luncheon was never omitted with children under eleven or
twelve.

In the four older groups the care and serving of the table
was assigned individually, strict rotation being observed, as
the privilege of inviting guests was a part of this duty. It was
found that children of six and under rarely have ability to
converse freely at a table of eight or ten, so that very often a
story was told during lunch by the teacher or visiting guests.

One of the outstanding results of the experience with the
cooking program was its value in teaching even the youngest
children to use fractional parts as easily and intelligently as
they did whole numbers. Supplemented as it was by the use
of the fractional parts of the foot and yard in their other con-
structive activities, this work seemed to furnish the needed
concrete experience in multiplication and division of whole
numbers and fractions. Because it was important to use a
third of a cup instead of a fourth, in order to get more to eat,

3o6 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

there was no muddle or confusion in the child's mind as to
which fraction was the larger. It was easy to understand that
if each child needed a third of a cup of cereal, twelve children
would need four cups. The use of arithmetical symbols as the
way of putting this down for future reference became natural
and easy.

The questions of marketing and keeping accounts were fre-
quently discussed. Because of the isolated position of the school
little of this work was done except as children nine, ten, and
eleven helped keep the school accounts and so covered the cost
of the food for the cooking. The children of this school were
not cut off from shopping experience at home. With children
who lack such experience because of their method of living,
it would seem that it might profitably be made a part of the
teaching program.

Cooking involves a series of such more or less complex proc-
esses that it was often difficult to enable the youngest children
to develop independence and initiative in their laboratory
periods for they were apt to become far too dependent on direc-
tion. The children in consequence were held to a persistent
use of general principles in all their preparation of food and
cooking. Additional experiments were made which illustrated
the kind of processes used and the fact that the amount of time
needed for cooking any food was dependent upon its nature.
They were taught for example the coagulation of albumen,
the character of cellulose and why it should be softened, and
how the flavor of food can be developed. This rendered the
children confident when confronted with the cooking of un-
known foods. They knew how to discover just how tough
cellulose of the new food was and the approximate amount of
starch in it or of albumen. They were able to judge whether
the food was to be used for flavor, for roughage, or as a source
of energy. They knew the fundamental proportions for batters
and doughs of different consistencies and their relation to the
•different raising agencies. Such daily experience freed them
from a helpless dependency on recipes, which teaching in
cooking often gives. When one knows how much baking
powder the use of one egg replaces, cakes are no mystery.

DEVELOPING SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS 307

When one knows that the principle of making white sauce
depends on the separation of the grains of starch by the proper
method, that thorough mixing and an even heat will prevent
the formation of lumps, and that the addition of one third
of the total quantity of liquid needed insures the uniform
quality of the product, lumpy gravy and soups never appear
on the menu.

To those who saw the alert and vital interest of these younger
children in this activity the lack of attention and the usual
bored attitude of adult or college students in household eco-
nomics, even when taught by an expert chemist, stood out in
great contrast. It is probable that the college teacher would not
find so many inhibitions and would be able to carry her ideal
of research in cookery further, had her students had an ele-
mentary experience such as that of the children in this school.

To see a class of eight-year-old children produce perfect
omelets, using small covered sheet-iron saucepans over gas
burners was a revelation of what experimental work could do
to curb the natural desire to poke in and see what is happening.
They had seen what happened in class test, and their confidence
in the control of the heat and knowledge of the correct length
of time gave them success in practical application. No failure
was ever passed by or covered up. It was critically reviewed to
ascertain what conditions had affected the result. Endowed
with an unusual combination of scientific and intellectual ap-
preciation and an artistic temperament the teacher, who car-
ried this course to its completion, was able to give the children
an unconscious feeling for the artistic side of preparing and
serving food and high ideals of efficiency in planning and
handling utensils.

The pressure of college preparatory examinations made
it necessary to eliminate from the program of the older chil-
dren the course that had been planned for them in the less
used techniques of cooking. Some of the children, however,
worked these out at home and became experts in the prepara-
tion of certain foods. Almost all of the children used what
they had learned with great pride and joy in the preparation
of Sunday night suppers for the family. The preparation and

3o8 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

servring of luncheons for distinguished visitors went through
very successfully. The reports from the alumnae indicate that
the understanding and use of cooking principles culminated
in surety, dexterity, and confidence in meeting the demands of
adult life. This was especially true of the two older classes who
had been six or seven years in the school.

MATHEMATICS

Because of the fundamental character of mathematical sci-
ence the development of that tool was one of the main con-
cerns of the planners of the school's curriculum. During the
first stages and the transitional years the problem was to see
that the children had appropriately simple occasions to use
number so that they saw in it a way to get order and effective-
ness into their occupations, whether games or constructions.
Measuring of all kinds played its part. It was never assumed
that mathematics can be so developed as to control social situa-
tions, for mathematical expressions are only of use as formal
tools in a special limited kind of experience. Hence number
is discussed not primarily as one of the sciences but as a form
of communication (see Chapter XVII). In Chapter XVII also
is the account of how some children with this practical back-
ground were able to think out, to express fundamental mathe-
matical relations such as ratio and proportion and to use
freely algebraic symbols and geometric construction.

SUMMARY

The development of the ability to plan ahead, to test, to
evaluate results, and to deduce from them the help needed
for future action or testing became fully conscious in only a
few classes, and in these not with all the children. However,
the mental attitude of being objective in sizing up a prob-
lem, a willingness to try to see and ability to direct that seeing
effectively was so characteristic of the majority of the children
who had been in the school for five years that this result seemed
to fulfil the hopes with which the science work had been

DEVELOPING SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS 309

planned. The general use of the scientific method in all lines
of the school work had exceeded the early expectations. While
the fields of future experimentations have been barely indi-
cated, there is hope that the present crisis will induce educators
to experiment scientifically in socially cooperative schools.

Sharing in planning was the secret of the successfully social
spirit of this school community. Social experiments must be
planned. All concerned must enter into the planning to insure
the success of any social undertaking, and all must accept their
plan as tentative, to be tested by events. Only in this open-
minded cooperative spirit can groups of individuals meet the
problems of the shifting scene so as to insure the continuity and
therefore the security of experience. Were the present Home-
stead experiments animated by the same spirit of cooperative
adventure in the field of social living as was this school of some
thirty years ago, there would be hope of an ever-increasing
number of genuine indigenous communities, gaining social se-
curity through cooperation.

CHAPTER XVI

EXPERIMENTAL ACTIVITIES
DEVELOPING ORIGINS AND BACK-
GROUNDS OF SOCIAL LIFE

A, GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY

JL HE familiar social activities of the child's present, and the
attendant manual arts, with their tools and materials, served
in the school as a natural introduction to history and geog-
raphy, projecting and ramifying into these so inevitably that
it only remained for the teacher to be alert to these connec-
tions and to take advantage of them. The factors in living
and the way they function always interest a child, regardless
of time or place. In the school the ways of extending these
interests and of linking them with the larger world of the past
were through familiar activities and tools. Tools and materials,
the wood and clay, the needle and cloth, and the processes by
which these are manipulated, were used to initiate the child
into the typical problems which had required human eEort,
into the laws of human production and achievement, and into
the methods by which man gained control of nature and made
his ideals into the good realities of life.

The child himself often made the process of transition from
the present to the past an easy one. With something of the
intuition of a true scientist he frequently chose an ancient
method of historical approach and solved the problem of how
to begin his study with "Let's pretend/' The group of present-
day farmers, miners, woodsmen, cooks or garment makers,
craftsmen or artists, sprang with the nimbleness of childhood
out of the present complicated and dimly understood ways of
present-day living into the ultra simplicity of the past, with

510

BACKGROUNDS OF SOCIAL LIFE 311

its few and crude ways of meeting the same primal needs. It
was not a dead past to them; they revived it by reliving it.

The little farmers found that as primitive people they were
hunters first or wandering tribes of herdsmen. Their interests
were in the way they could get food, the weapons and tools
they would be likely to use, the new inventions they made, and
the transformations in life that arose from the powers and
leisure thus gained. Each child was eager to remake utensils,
to reproduce processes, to rehandle materials. He appreciated
in a measure the situations of these ancient peoples and vaguely
understood their problems and their successes only because
out of the reality of his own experience he could picture their
difficulties and imagine the resources of their natural habitat.
Out of this new play springs a new interest in the fields and
the forests, the mountains, the ocean, the plants, the animals
about him. He uses his limited knowledge of the natural forces
and forms with which he himself is surrounded to build up
and reproduce a conception of the habitat of the people he is
studying. Their problems became his problems for which he
must find solutions, and the story of man— what he did, where,
and how he did it in increasingly better ways, what he invented,
where he traveled, and what he discovered— became real and
worthy. The tale of how things, as they are, came to be, helped
him to understand that the problem of how to live is the
problem of all time.

Place by place, also, the earth came to be viewed by the
child as the home of man, in which he has struggled with un-
toward conditions and overcome obstacles in a long upward
climb. A child's own social world is so rich and full that it
is not easy for him to see how much it cost, how much effort
and thought lie back of it. Through a study of primitive living,
however, he sees man face to face with nature, without tools,
without manufactured materials. Step by step he follows the
processes by which man recognized his needs and how to cope
with them, and learns how new resources open new interests
and bring new problems.

The child sees life as a whole in terms of its fundamental
needs, its simple relationships, its pure satisfactions. The point

THE DEWEY SCHOOL

of view of the teacher, however, is through the bifocal lens of
training and of adult experience. There is constant need for
her to be agile in her change from one to the other. At any
moment of her teaching she must lift her head for far-sighted
vision. Like Alice, she must step with her children behind the
looking glass and in this imaginative land she must see all
things with their eyes and limited by their experience; but,
in time of need, she must be able to recover her trained vision
and from the realistic point of view of an adult supply the
guide posts of knowledge and the skills of method.

It was essential, therefore, in this school that a teacher, what-
ever her specialty, should have had the fertile life experience
that is the result of experimental living guided by intelligent
thinking. Thus while she saw history from the psychological
point of view of the child as the story of man, working on and
changing his environment, from the point of view of a trained
teacher she saw it as the classified facts o£ history or science.
From the child's viewpoint she selected material concerned
with the lives of persons or races who did interesting things
that led to still more interesting and helpful living. Such
selection oftentimes, especially during the years of the ele-
mentary period, did not coincide with the chronological ar-
rangement of a curriculum chosen by a disciple of the older
school of learning. A teacher who held that the end in view
was to give the child, at an early age, an understanding of
character and social relationships in their natural dependence,
found it impossible to follow the development of civilization
through the successive steps in which it actually took place.
The chronological order in historical instruction is logical to
the adult mind, but because of its complexity and remoteness,
is alien to the interests and understanding of a child. Experi-
ment indicated that the young child's interest is much closer in
spirit and understanding to the typical conditions, activities,
and relations of the social life of a prehistoric people than to
the complicated and artificial life of ancient Babylon or of
Egypt.

BACKGROUNDS OF SOCIAL LIFE 313

THE CHILD'S INTEREST IN PRIMITIVE LIFE

The history of this early period— anthropology— was, there-
fore, indirect sociology—a study of the occupations of men as
affecting intellectual growth and social advancement. It was
believed, and the results justified such a belief, that in such a
study the child would find a key to unlock the meanings of
his present complicated social life. He would also discover
the method of progressive living. As the children relived the
drama of early man's active occupations, they found that he
always learned by doing. His method was a trial-and-error one
in the beginning. Then, by intelligent experimenting, he dis-
covered, he invented, and brought to bear contrivances of his
own fashioning upon his physical environment. What better
introduction to the experimental method could any child have
than that of the first discoveries of the power of mind over mat-
ter? As a child of this school he relived the activities of primi-
tive days, he was introduced to much scientific truth and un-
consciously absorbed a method which increased his intellectual
constructiveness. As he approached maturity he came to see
how all the sciences have developed gradually out of the occupa-
tions of living; and this is also true of the social sciences. The
child realized, out of his own experience, as he followed both
actually and vicariously the story of man's climb on the ladder
of living, how all the various activities in industrial occupa-
tions have developed from the simple to the complex. He fol-
lowed the wool from the sheep to the nig, patiently contriving
his own spindle, his own dye, his own loom: when older, he re-
viewed the same process more carefully in the developing in-
dustries of Colonial days. He saw, that while successive inven-
tions of machines have led to the eventual betterment of social
life, the immediate results have often been at the bitter cost
of the discarded hand-worker whose plight illustrates an ever-
present social problem caused by technological advance. In-
dustrial history thus taught on a background of actual experi-
ence with materials and processes will always have more than
a materialistic or merely utilitarian meaning. For the children
of this school it carried many social and moral implications

314 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

of unsolved problems of human relationships. Thus taught,
the history of work becomes the record of how man learned to
think, to think to some effect, to transform the conditions of
life so that life itself became a different and less tortured thing
and gradually took on, for some at least, comfort and beauty.
Here, for all thinking and socially minded persons, logically
follows the goading query— Why not comfort and beauty for
all?

History, thus educationally considered, was for these chil-
dren a study of society which lays bare its process of becoming,
and its modes of organization. In primitive living social rela-
tionships and organizations are reduced to their simplest terms.
The quality of an individual or the value of an act stands out
clearly in a situation. A child can see in imagination the forces
which favor and permit men's effective cooperation with one
another, can recognize the sorts of character that help on or
hold back, can appreciate the motives which draw men together
or push them apart, and understand that quality of character
is the same now as then. The organization of the tribe is plain
to a child. He sees that every one must live, and that the life
of the group is dependent upon its members. The law of in-
dividual right and social justice is simple and clear. To most
of the pupils, studying as a group about cooperative living,
a social way came to mean the right way. This penetration into
the ethical significance of social acting showed results in their
own actions. They were willing to work together and had more
concern for fair play. To those who watched and guided them,
this augured well that in their later lives the social, ethical,
and moral ways of living might become synonymous in mean-
ing. This by-product of an intelligent and sympathetic under-
standing of the ethics of a present situation might be called an
indication of the moral value of history, when taught in this
fashion.

As pointed out in a description of the method of teaching
history in the school,1 three lines of historical development

i Georgia F. Bacon, "History,*' Elementary School Record, Nov., 1900.

BACKGROUNDS OF SOCIAL LIFE 315

were followed, the social, Industrial, and political. The social
and industrial were emphasized first and the political phase
later, although at all times attention was directed to the simple
beginnings of government in the organization of primitive
tribes for protection and other purposes. Only at a later stage
of growth, at eleven or twelve years, was it found that the child
is able to appreciate political institutions, to understand what
special institutional idea each historic nation stands for and
what factor it has contributed to the present complex of in-
stitutions.

History for the younger children was of a generalized and
simplified type. It was hardly history at all in the local or
chronological sense, but aimed to give the child insight into
and sympathy with a variety of present and fundamental so-
cial activities. The first years of the school these courses were
highly experimental in character.

SOCIAL OCCUPATIONS AND HISTORY IN PREFERRED ORDER

One year a combination of social occupations, such as coal
mining, cotton growing, and general farm life, with stories of
early Greek life and primitive life was tried. The class visited
farms, modeled them, made a comparison of the houses in
their own city with those in Greece, Japan, China, and Green-
land, and worked out the evolution of the home from cave
periods. The following year, the course in social occupations
was continued. Here the main idea was the interaction of coun-
try and city life in maintaining existing conditions. An effort
was made to select occupations closely connected with food,
clothing, and shelter. In another year this group made a study
of child life in Holland, Africa, Greenland, and Japan, with
some work on climatic conditions. As a result of the experience
of these experimental years the regular course of study for
Group III (six years) was present-day occupations of people in
country and city. This course was called Typical Existing So-
cial Occupations. The differentiation of city and country life,
their interaction, and mutual dependence were emphasized.

gi6 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

The later reports show a wide variation in detail of treatment
of and in points of emphasis on this topic by different teachers
and even by the same teacher with different classes.

The work of Group IV, seven years old, was outlined as:
Development of Social Life; Discoveries and Inventions of In-
dustry, from the most primitive beginnings to the opening of
authentic history. This subject-matter was used for the ajctivi-
ties of the children of this age throughout the life of the
school. It also varied much each year in details and manner
of treatment, but at all times the present and the past were
related to one another.

The work of the eight-year-old children, Group V, who were
on the borderland of the second period of growth, passed
through an experimental period (1896 to 1898). In the first
year of this period the work with this group on inventions
through discovery had been passed over rapidly, and Homeric
Society taken up in historical detail, since it afforded insight
into a simple, natural life which expressed itself in a rich,
artistic civilization. The Iliad and the Odyssey were used as
vivid, interesting pictures of the society of the times. The
second year of the school the children of this age, Group V,
had been in the school since its beginning. They had had con-
secutive work in present-day social occupations and in the
evolution of inventions and their effect upon life, and were
given a course which related then* ideas of the development of
an imagined primitive tribe to a definite place and people.
This course carried the development of civilization to a form
in which the symbols and conveniences such as a written lan-
guage, number system, weights, and measures approximated
their own. The Phoenicians were chosen to typify this stage.
As they were traders and explorers, continuously pushing back
farther and farther the boundaries of their known world, the
children easily made the transition to the discoveries of another
Mediterranean maritime people, the Venetians. The class then
followed the explorations of Marco Polo to the East, of Prince
Henry of Portugal around Africa, and of the Spaniards to the
west in the journeys of Columbus and Balboa to America. The
story of Magellan told of the circumnavigation of the whole

BACKGROUNDS OF SOCIAL LIFE 317

world. Children of eight years are interested in adventure, and
this course dealt with the great movements of migration, ex-
ploration, and discover)7 which have brought the whole world
into human ken. The account of the great explorers and dis-
coverers thus served to make a natural transition from the
previous year's work, which was independent of historical
data in the strict sense of the term, to what is local and specific
and depends upon certain specified persons who lived at cer-
tain specified times and places. The course was used with
Group V for the rest of the years of the school.2

A change is noticeable in the attitude toward his work of a
child of nine years, and the problem of the teacher at the
beginning of the reflective age becomes more complex. She
must see that the subject-matter of history is so presented that
the child's mind will reach out, question, examine, and analyze
the forces which caused the men and women of history to
think and act. He must understand also the social side: how
their acts aided or hindered progress. History now becomes
less empirical and more a matter of authentic record, so that
the question of definite recall of what has been studied comes
into the scheme. The attack upon the subject-matter is differ-
ent; it is not so much a question of how a people might meet
a problem of conditions as a question of -fact and why things
happened as they did. During the previous years the child has
gained some conception of space relations in the study of the
world as a whole; definite time has meant little. He must now
get some idea of the effect of time. This begins vaguely, but as
the study proceeds, a knowledge of dates as an aid In compar-
ing events is found essential. The child is still studying indirect
sociology, and his study must be one of types in order that he
may gain methods of independent work which will enable him
to understand other problems of history.

DEVELOPMENT OF CURRICULUM FROM PREVIOUS EXPERIMENTS

The subject-matter for Group VI also developed out of a
series of experiments of successive years. In the later years of

2 Course given by Laura L. Runyon.

3i8 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

the school their study centered around local conditions and the
definite activities of a particular people. Extracts from the teach-
er's account of the work follows: 3

The French explorers and the early settlers in the Northwest and
the settlement of Chicago made a good beginning for children liv-
ing in the Mississippi Valley. It gave an opportunity to enlarge the
concepts formed in the study of the Phoenicians and the early ex-
plorers. Marquette, like Livingstone, is seen to be actuated by
religious motives in exiling himself from his native land; Joliet, as
a trader, was motivated by the same impulses which sent the
Phoenician merchants and, long afterwards, the explorers of the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries on long and hazardous voyages.
In searching for natural highways into the interior of America, the
child finds the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence as he found the
Nile, Niger, Congo, and Zambezi in his study of Africa. He can,
therefore, compare the American rivers with those of Africa, the
Indians with the Negroes, and the degree of civilization of tribes
in America with that of other peoples he has studied. The isolation
of the early pioneer and his means of getting his furs to the sea-
coast, his tools, weapons, manner of living, etc., are brought out. In
imagination the child sees the frontier life develop into a thriving
village with need of a local government, system of taxation, im-
provements, etc Through this discussion he is guided to compre-
hend simple forms of civic politics, so that the paved and sewered
streets, the policemen, the aldermen, and the mayor, with all of
whom he has been somewhat familiar, have now more definite parts
in the social world. . . .

The study of the French explorers is followed by a brief account
of the explorers who gave England a claim to land in America.
Then a study of typical American colonies is begun, Virginia as a
southern colony, Massachusetts as a northern one. The church and
the state as institutions come in now as parts of the social life, and
efforts toward religious and political freedom underlie the life of
the people. With the child, as with the colonists, the first question
was always how did the people in the new land live. Recognition
was always given to the fact that they could not live independently
of the civilization from which they came. . . . An attempt was
made to get the children to eliminate those conveniences of civiliza-
tion with which they are familiar; to realize how it would seem
to live in America without a single railroad, steamboat, or road of

» Laura L. Runyon, The Teaching of Elementary History in the Dewey
School, Thesis, Graduate School Arts and Literature (University of Chi-
cago, June, 1906).

BACKGROUNDS OF SOCIAL LIFE 319

any kind except the Indian trails and rivers; to be dependent upon
England for sugar, vinegar, tea, coffee, etc*; to imagine how it would
seem to have no fuel except wood, no means of lighting a fire ex-
cept flint and steel; to have no oil for lamps, no cattle from which
to get milk and butter; and to have to build houses of logs, since
there were no sawmills. The children discussed the new conditions
of life that must be met, then read the account to see if their sup-
positions were correct. They discovered that England had to learn
by experience the art of colonization. . . .

A vivid description of the settlement of Virginia and the motives
which led to it was followed by a discussion of why things were as
the historian describes them, whether the starving time was due
solely to the "community of goods" system and consequent idleness
on the part of the gentlemen who came to find gold, or whether it
might not be accounted for in part by the lack of knowledge of soil
and farming and the difficulties of clearing ground with the in-
adequate methods of the time. In the story of the development of
the first permanent English colony the child learns more than mere
facts. In considering the life of John Smith, or any other hero of
the early times, he sees a whole life in perspective. He has had little
actual experience with people that will aid him in judging char-
acter, but in the study of characters in history the motive of action
and the results stand out prominently. Youth with its conditions
and age as it has worked out its life are brought together. Thus the
lives of historical personages bring the child into contact with the
experiences of long life. Such character study is made in its natural
setting as the child images the life of the people and the times. That
these persons studied are ancestors of himself and his friends gives
a deeper interest in the work. As he identifies Himself with the
colony, he appreciates those who help on and is indignant with
those who hinder progress; and this helping or hindering, he com-
prehends, is not a mere question of willing, but depends upon
what a man is. Therefore, his conception of his own social world
becomes clearer, and he begins to get a glimpse of the dose net-
work which binds each individual to every other.

The study of colonial history, therefore, furnished only the carry-
ing medium for the deeper and more universal study of the adapta-
tion of a civilized people to the primitive conditions of a new
environment, the study of character, and the training of judgment
In these early days the prototype of our democratic form of gov-
ernment was worked out, and the child who is just beginning to be
interested in the city and national elections is able to comprehend
how they began. He is studying the life of a people, the problems
they had to face and how they succeeded. He constantly contrasts
the past with his own life and gets deeper understanding of the

32o THE DEWEY SCHOOL

present. He finds the meaning for much of his present life in the
past and, hence, is constantly reading into his daily life the new
value derived from his study. In New England, the colonial question
has a different phase from Virginia in the religious reasons which
induced the Pilgrims and Puritans to leave their native land and
seek homes in a new country. Commercial products in New England
were different from those in Virginia, because of the difference in
latitude and physiographical conditions. . . .

The general plan was for the class to discuss a situation and
decide from their point of view as colonists what would be best to
do next, either from the teadier or books, to discover just what was
done, then to decide what probably would be the effect of the
action or decision, and finally to find out what the actual result was
as stated in historical records. This method of attacking history is
similar to that of science. There is first the recognition of conditions,
an attempt to relate the situation to those previously studied, next
an hypothesis as to the effect of manipulation of conditions, then a
study of the effect, and then generalization of results. It was found
that the physiographical conditions of a country are largely re-
sponsible for its industries. The New England farmers had discov-
ered that their barren hills furnished pasture for sheep and cattle,
and that cattle and wool were readily exchanged in the West Indies,
together with fish, for molasses, sugar, etc. And molasses helped to
make rum, which could be sold for gold (a rare article in the
colonies) to the slave trade-ships. England had by law prevented
this trade. The fact that the laws could only be partially enforced
did not remove the irritation they caused. . . . To understand this
irritation, it is necessary to recall the stages of development of
manufactures before the Revolution. Industries were carried on in
the home and gave each family an opportunity to make a little
money. In their study of textiles the children worked out the part
invention played in the various steps in the manufacture of cloth
and were, therefore, able to comprehend the change that would
come with the beginning of those inventions which brought in the
factory system and made possible the rapid growth of manufactories
at the close of the Revolution.

The ten-year-old children (Group VII) in the experimental first
years of the school had the same work as Group VI. In the revised
program for this age the American history of the year before was
continued, taking up the French and Indian War and the Revolu-
tion. The amount of ground covered and the method of treat-
ment varied in different years. For two successive years the group
spent the entire year on American history and covered part or all
of the Revolutionary War period. One year the group spent six
months on this work, omitting the Revolution and studying the

FINISHING THE HEDDLE

BACKGROUNDS OF SOCIAL LIFE 321

connections of American and European life. With this group the
center of thought and study was focused on the ethical and scien-
tific side of the struggle.

Group VIII (eleven years) was in a transitional period. The sub-
ject which seemed to fit this period was the history of colonization
by European countries. The attempt was made to give to this
group the same balance and completeness of world view as that
gained by the eight-year-old children in the study of the Phoenicians
and early world explorers. In each of these years the effort -was
made to help the children gather together the knowledge of the
two preceding years and grasp its significance as a whole in larger
relations. Accordingly, the development of the American colonies
was considered from an European point of view. England, France,
and Spain were studied as countries which attempted colonization
in the New World, in the East Indies, Africa, and Australia. The
methods and aims in claiming and holding territory, the character
of the settlements, and the connections with the mother country
were taken up. A comparison was made of the colonies established
by one country in different parts of the world (as England's colonies
in America, India, Africa, and Australia). The conflicts of different
countries over land claims, and the working out of some principles
of international law were discussed, and a comparison of the differ-
ent national methods of establishing and controlling colonies made.
It was necessary to compare climates, to realize the physiography
of the different regions, the industrial products possible, and the
trade routes open for exchange with other countries. The study also
brought out the knowledge of new products and the necessity of
dealing with larger areas, larger masses of people, and new condi-
tions. The settlement by European countries of colonies in America
brought the children back from their excursion into world history
and geography and the study of the backgrounds of the colonists
to America and her problems in the Revolutionary period.

Group IX, at twelve years, took up the colonies just before the
Revolutionary period, the formation of the Constitution, and the
westward expansion of the new Union and its gradual acquisition
of territory.

Group X (thirteen years) was believed to be ready to deal, not
with social life in general nor social life that is familiar, but with
certain thoroughly differentiated, peculiar types of social life, the
special significance of each, and the particular contribution each
has made to world history. The plan, accordingly, was to follow
chronological order to a large extent, to begin with the ancient
world about the Mediterranean basin and the contribution the
various ancient peoples had made to social life, art, and industry,
and to guide the child through European history and the move-

THE DEWEY SCHOOL

ments of peoples in territorial expansion to the peculiar and dif-
ferentiating factors of American history. This plan was never
carried into practice, however, in its entirety. For two years this
group had no history, as they were absorbed and occupied with
building the club-house. Another year, because of gaps in history
training, the group made a thorough review of American history,
using McMaster's School History as a textbook.4

Group XI (fourteen and fifteen years) in the last years of the school
studied Roman history from the point of view of the formation of
a political state. The starting point was the play of Julius Caesar, part
of college requirements.

SUMMARY OF CURRICULA AND METHOD

The children who had followed the regular work of the
school had spent one year on social occupations, one on primi-
tive life, one on explorations and discoveries, one on Chicago
and the Virginia and Massachusetts Bay colonies, one on the
union of the colonies and the Revolution, one half-year on
American history from the European point of view, one half-
year on the formation of the American Constitution, the ac-
quisition of new territory in the westward expansion, and the
industrial development up to 1830, and one year on history
review in preparation for college board examinations or on
Roman history. The average time the younger groups spent on
history was two and one half hours a week; that of the older
groups was one and one half hours a week. The successful
practices of each succeeding year became the revised program
for the next year. Thus each year's work was the produc of
repeated experiments and finally resulted in the general plan
outlined above.

A report of the work and method of another group and
teacher follows: 5

The method employed in conducting classes was generally that
of conversation and discussion. Facts and conditions were pre-
sented, making the life of the time under consideration as real as
possible. When the children understood the conditions of the life,

* These children had studied Roman history at eleven when they be-
gan Latin.

s Georgia F. Bacon, "History," Elementary School Record, November,
1900.

BACKGROUNDS OF SOCIAL LIFE 323

the problems of the time naturally presented themselves, and the
class endeavored to find a solution. It was an interesting fact that
the more the class lived in the time the more certain it was to find
the same solution to the questions of the day as the people who
actually worked them out. Young children like the detail which is
necessary for this sort of work; they like to dwell for a long time
on an event; they like to walk around it, mentally viewing it from
all points and asking numberless questions until the picture stands
distinct in the mind. The ideal way of teaching history to little
children is to allow them to make whatever approach they wish.
To do this the teacher must be well acquainted with her subject,
well equipped with facts, and must have in mind a definite thing
to be taught. Her real opportunity to guide lies in her suggestive
answers to their questions, or in helping the children to make their
own answers. By this process they gain not only an extensive but
an intensive view. One great difficulty in this method is the lack
of books that enter sufficiently into detail.6 Even children feel this;
one child complained: "The books don't tell enough about any-
thing so you really know it. They say a little about this man, or
that one, and then leave it and take up something else." The books
of Alice Morse Earl meet this demand for fine detail in colonial
history in a satisfactory manner.

With very young children the teacher furnished the positive in-
formation. As soon as the pupils were able to read, however, they
were sent to books to look up the necessary facts. Generally, with
older pupils each was asked to report on a different point and thus
contribute to the building up of the whole. This provided a raison
d'etre to the recitation. Sometimes the lessons were carried on so
that the children ran aground until they could get certain informa-
tion, and the gathering of this information constituted the prepa-
ration for the next lesson. At other times the teacher gave out a
number of points to be looked up for discussion the following day.
In class the interchange of thought, the additions and criticism,
cleared up the ideas and fixed them firmly in mind. If a book
was found which summed up a period, it was read as a review,
after the material had been worked over in class as indicated above.
In United States history, Fiske's School History answered this pur-
pose admirably with children over eleven years of age.

The interest of children of twelve and thirteen in historical
novels led to the belief that biography could be used with great
profit. . . . The experiment was tried to a certain extent with a
class in United States history. Each child selected a prominent man
of Revolutionary times, made a study of his life and reported on
the part he played in the Revolution.

6 This is no longer true.

3*4

THE DEWEY SCHOOL

A child is a natural hero worshipper. He begins by placing his
parents on a pedestal; later, the school companion who can per-
form the greatest feat replaces these. As his horizon broadens, his
heroes become men of national repute, for the most part military
or naval heroes whose deeds he can appreciate. ... It is well, then,
that the hero should be of the right sort to inspire him. This,
history can provide, as it deals for the most part with those who
have held high ideals and have possessed strength of character to
carry them out. In this study of characters in relation to their
physical and social environment, the child is impressed with the
relative value of different traits and learns to appreciate those
which ensure success of the lasting sort. It was often clearly demon-
strated in this school that the ethical teaching of history had for
its end the development of the child in the three directions in-
dicated by Mr. Dewey in his definition of character: First, good
judgment. This is the ability to take the permanent instead of
the transient, the important instead of the trivial. It is the power
to have perspective and proportion in considering the possibilities
of experience. . . . Second, it involves emotional delicacy or re-
sponsiveness to what is conceived as worth while or as good. . . .
Finally, character means the possession of practical force, the power
to assert one's convictions and aims amid difficulties and to persist
in their execution against obstacles.

B. THE TEXTILE INDUSTRY HISTORICALLY DEVELOPED

As the school developed, certain occupations displayed
greater continuity than others for adaptation to different age
levels and were, therefore, of striking help in teaching science
and history. The shop-work with wood and metals, because of
limitations as to quarters and teachers, never developed the
continuity possible with these materials. Cooking proved of
enormous value in teaching the scientific method, although its
historical bearings were always adequately developed. The
textile occupations were found quite perfectly adapted to show
the historical development of an industry fundamentally im-
portant to daily living. The detailed record of how this oc-
cupation was used educationally in the school is therefore
given in this account of the history matter of the curriculum.

The history of work, what people did to get a living, was a
main theme of the school curriculum. It provided a continu-
ous story, capable of unlimited extension into many fields of

BACKGROUNDS OF SOCIAL LIFE 325

knowledge. Shorter projects grew out of it naturally and in
turn led on to others, all giving sustenance and value to the
whole. The test of a subject for study was the number of its
possibilities not only for continuing but for enlarging experi-
ence. Did it lead to a next step? Deference to this criterion
gave a continuity to the school's curriculum which was one of
its outstanding characteristics.

As the result of a good deal of experimenting from year to
year, the various -activities of spinning, weaving, sewing, the
making of clothing or other necessary or decorative household
articles grew into a continuous study of various occupations
concerned with the making of fabrics, known on the school's
program as a course in Textiles. All of the activities of the
school were occupations or related to occupations which are
reproductions of or run parallel to forms of work carried on
in all social life, whether of the present or of the past. One
of their most important educational possibilities was that
they furnished so many things in simple form that a child can
do. More, perhaps, than any other household occupation, the
course in textiles opened up many lines of interest to children
of all ages and afforded more frequently than most courses,
opportunity to each child for free practice in thought and
action. Many facts of history, of science, and of geography
naturally related themselves to its various phases. The how and
why and where of developing human life centered easily and
naturally around these activities of human living, and through
taking part in them the ways of progress in material and social
living grew plain to the participating children. It was, in fact,
one of the most successful unifying agents of the whole ele-
mentary program. It correlated history with science or with
geography and stimulated the child's interest and effort to
attain mastery of his skills in reading, writing, or measure-
ment.

The fundamental point in the psychology of the controlled
educational use of an occupation such as the spinning or the
weaving was found to be that it maintains a balance between
the intellectual and the practical phases of experience. As an
occupation it is active or motor; it finds expression through the

326 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

physical organs, the eyes, hands, etc. But it also involves con-
tinual observation of materials and continual planning and
reflection in order that the practical or executive side may be
successfully carried on. Conceived thus, as an occupation, it
should be carefully distinguished from work which educates
primarily for a trade.7 Its end is in itself, in the growth that
comes from the continual interplay of ideas and their em-
bodiment in action, and not in external utility. Great stress was
laid upon personal experimenting, planning and reinventing,
and upon the parallelism of the children's work with lines of
historical and social development of the period. The first re-
quires the child to be mentally quick and alert at every point
in order that he may do the outward work properly. The second
enriches and deepens the work performed by saturating it with
values suggested from the social life which it recapitulates.

INTRODUCTION TO INDUSTRY IN PRIMITIVE HISTORY

The child, with his untried powers, his paucity of experi-
ence, is in much the same attitude toward the world and toward
life as was early man. Both are decidedly motor in their ac-
tivity. In both there is a reservoir of motor energy, urgent for
discharge upon their environment. Both are interested in
objects and materials, not from a contemplative or theoretical
standpoint, but from the standpoint of what can be done with
them, and what can be got out of them. Primitive man mainly
occupied himself with the direct problems of life— food, fuel,
shelter, protection. His concerns were the utensils, tools, instru-
mentalities that secured him a constantly improving life. His

T Mr. Dewey points out that "wherever the mastery of certain tools or
the production of certain objects is made the primary end of manual train-
ing, the educational value is lost. When, however, the child is given intel-
lectual responsibility in his work to select materials and instruments that
are most fit; if he has opportunity to think out his own model and plan
of work, if he is led to perceive his own errors and find out how to correct
them so far as he is able, his work has great educational value. Such work
may be called an occupation because the maximum of consciousness is put
into whatever is done." "The Psychology of Occupation," Elementary
School Record, April, 1900.

BACKGROUNDS OF SOCIAL LIFE 327

interest in nature was based upon its direct and indispensable
relation to his own needs and activities.

This suggested to those directing this experiment that an
important educational task might be to get hold of the es-
sential underlying attitude which the child has in common
with primitive man and give it such play and expression that,
avoiding the errors and wanderings of his forefathers, he may
come to the ends and realities toward which, after all, primi-
tive man was struggling. In developing his idea of this task,
Mr. Dewey points out that there is a fundamental and im-
portant difference between the two. Necessity, the pressure
of getting a living, was upon the savage. The child is, or
should be, protected against economic stress and strain. The
expression of energy takes, in his case, a form of play, play
which is not amusement, but the intrinsic exhibition of in-
herent powers so as to exercise and develop them. Accordingly,
while the value of the motor activities of the savage was found
chiefly in the external result, in the game that was killed or
the fish that was caught, and only incidentally in a gain of
skill and insight, with the child the exact reverse is the case.
With him, the external result is only a sign, a token; it is just
a proof and exhibition to himself of his own capacities. In it
he comes to consciousness of his own impulses. He learns to
know them through seeing what they can effect. But the
primary interest and the ultimate value remain in the culture
of the powers of action, obtained in and through their being
put to effective use.

Criticism has frequently been directed against using a year
of the young child's life in a study of primitive conditions. The
criticism has point only if primitive life is so isolated as to be
treated as an end in itself, instead of as an opportunity for
the study of the joint activity of social needs and intelligence
in esthetic industrial invention. Speaking of this matter in
connection with the use of textiles as a continuous course
throughout the program, the director of the school wrote as
follows: 8

s John Dewey, "The Psychology of Occupation," Elementary School
Record f April, 1900.

THE DEWEY SCHOOL

The study of primitive forms of spinning and weaving is given
in connection with the primitive history to illustrate further the
life of people whose mode of living is simple and in direct contact
with nature. This study also presents a craft which has an intimate
place in the daily life of primitive people.

The suggestion has been made that present conditions of manu-
facture might more profitably present a study of textiles than a re-
turn to unused methods. The advantage of returning to these
earlier methods, aside from giving a richer content to the period
of history the child is concerned with, is that they exhibit an im-
portant industry of today reduced to its simplest terms. The exist-
ing forms of the industry of textiles are too complex in process, in
the forms of the machines, and in organization, for the children,
to comprehend; whereas in primitive conditions we find only the
essential elements of the industry. Non-essentials are eliminated;
basic principles are clear and definite; the child deals first-hand
with raw materials. With this concrete background of experience it
becomes comparatively easy for children to understand modern
machine production.

The child realizes the conditions of the period by reconstructing
them with materials naturally used at that time. These are of such
a nature that the child can reinvent processes and implements
used. The dramatic instinct is appealed to in acting out the life
and occupations, the creative or artistic desire to carry a project
to its end. The child's joy in doing what other people have done
finds an outlet, and meanwhile he gains power in handling ma-
terials and in controlling processes. These impulses and experi-
ences are realized in the finished product, which holds the child's
interest throughout. The spinning and weaving are for the purpose
of providing blankets for the primitive family and are done in a
manner appropriate to the limitations of its life. The child also
realizes in the progress of his work the artistic impulses of these
primitive peoples, which are recalled in his own quaint designs
and color combinations. Such material is selected as will give pleas-
ing results. In other words, the finished product should be, so far
as possible, beautiful. From the child's point of view there should
be nothing in it to offend or interfere with his judgment of what
is appropriate. Above all it should contribute something to his
standard of judgment of things of an artistic nature.

What is here said about conditions of manufacture in one in-
dustry is true not only of industry in general, but of forms of social
organization as well. In working out the different processes in-
volved in making cloth, in using materials and implements sug-
gested by necessity, and in observing the results reached by people
of the past, children realize the advance made in methods of work
and can readily understand the meaning of industrial organization

BACKGROUNDS OF SOCIAL LIFE 329

in its simplest forms. This step precedes a more fruitful and con-
crete study of the later phases of the industry; that is, of the house-
hold and domestic period which is richly illustrated in early colonial
life. This again is followed by a study of the transition period, the
era of inventions in England in the eighteenth century, which in
turn indicates economic conditions leading to factory organiza-
tion. The study of each phase of industry is simplified by following
its natural development and by its coincidence with history which
provides the social setting. It has a further advantage in that it can
be adapted to each period of the child's development. He is himself
advancing by easy stages of such a nature as enable him to com-
prehend cause and effect in the organization of the particular phases
of the industry he is pursuing.

It was a matter of common experience in the school that
when activities were undertaken in the simple crude setting
of imagined primitive life, it was possible and natural to
put the children in touch with raw materials. They thus
learned by experience to prepare them for use in this work.
The educational use of this was most apparent in a course in
basketry which was given in the school as a part of the textile
work:

9 The children sought for, discovered, and experimented with na-
tive grasses and with those of many other localities. This awak-
ened an interest in their own environment and, by contrast, in
that of other localities. In such a course the care and preparation
of the grasses carry the child to a further appreciation of their
quality and beauty than he gets from a mere understanding of
their application. In drying them their constant change and variety
of color suggests different modes of working toward securing whole
series of colors. Through the greens, browns, and yellows which
naturally appear, the child may be led to vary his process in such
a way as to secure infinite numbers of shades of all these colors. . . .
The finished product is, perhaps, crude compared with the basket
or mat made with prepared material, but what the child gets from
it is infinitely more worth while. The products contribute to an
appreciation of nature, and through the control of nature's ma-
terial he realizes the pleasure of artistic creation. It has brought
something into the life of the one who made it, has contributed
to his own experience. . . .

9Althea Harmer, "Primitive Textile Work in the Laboratory School,"
The Elementary School Teacher, June, 1903.

33o THE DEWEY SCHOOL

Continuous throughout the whole elementary period, this
course in textiles, like that in cooking, represented the possi-
bilities of such an activity as a carrier for facts. Freighted as
it was with innumerable possibilities for extension into the
field of the fine arts and of human relationships, it became in
the hands of a very gifted and highly trained teacher one of the
main avenues for the extension of knowledge, the develop-
ment of skill in expression and creative ability, and an in-
creased appreciation of esthetic beauty and the meaning of
social values and standards. The story of its use in the school,
as told by the teacher who guided its developing activities,
follows:

10 A DEVELOPING INDUSTRY AS CURRICULAR MATERIAL

In every community the greater number of people are engaged
in the industries of providing food, clothing, and shelter. Indus-
tries largely affect the social life of a community, and the social
life its history. The textile industries have been chosen as a type
of industry which can be studied in the school-room for illustrat-
ing this effect on social life and history.

Under primitive conditions the spinning and weaving are in the
first stages of development; skins, furs, and matted fibers are used
for clothing. At a later period each home becomes its own pro-
ducer; clothing, from the raw material to the finished garment, is
made by some member of the family. Even in this period there
is a division of labor in the hand-work, giving to each member of
the family the task he can do best. In the maiding of woolen cloth,
for example, the younger members cleaned and carded the wool;
the women spun the yarn; the men washed and sheared the sheep
and usually did the weaving, while the mother made the doth
into garments for the family.

Out of the household developed the so-called domestic system. A
master-workman, with a small capital, bought wool from a dealer,
distributed it among the families in the village to be carded, spun,
and woven. He collected the cloth and carried it to town to sell
at a profit. The merchant was then separated from the manu-
facturer.

With the introduction of machines and more specialization, the
domestic system gradually grew into the factory. Weavers first took

10 Althea Harmer, "Textile Industries," Elementary School Record, April,
1900.

BACKGROUNDS OF SOCIAL LIFE 331

their wool to the factory to be carded by machine; later the spin-
ning was done in the factory, weaving still remaining a home in-
dustry. The work was controlled by a capitalist and done under
inspection in the homes of weavers. The weavers were, in conse-
quence of this system, obliged to leave the country and congre-
gate around the village spinning mills. The power used in running
the mills also affected conditions of manufacture. Factories run by
water-power were scattered through the country along the banks
of rivers and small streams. With the use of steam-power, factory
life concentrated in large cities near centers of trade. Large capital
was invested; machines were invented and improved; and finally
the present factory system was introduced.

This is a brief statement of the industrial history about which
the work of the children centers. Three stages of development were
selected because of their connections with the history work, and be-
cause the materials and implements involved in the different
processes are of such a nature that the children could make their
own deductions from simple experiments. They were able to carry
out the whole process from the handling of the fiber in its natural
condition to the woven cloth.

The value of the child's social education lies in his gradual
growth in knowledge of the meaning of the simplest forms of in-
dustrial organization. He can follow each period of development
when he himself is at such a stage of social advancement as to
readily comprehend causes and their effects. A child who is able
to rediscover and carry out from beginning to end the whole ma-
terial process of an industry is also able to organize it on the social
side. Step by step from the primitive through the household and
domestic stage and, dramatically, even through the factory stage,
he is able to work out its lines of organization. As the course de-
velops, three stages become apparent. In the primitive stage,
working from the inventive side the children get a knowledge of
raw materials, a technical skill in handling them. They see the
value of implements and invent mechanical devices for converting
the raw materials into cloth. Beginning with primitive implements
—the distaff, spindle, and loom— each step made is traced out, and
the mechanical advantage gained in the application of the force
used becomes clear. The household and domestic stage coincides
with the colonial period. Here the educational value is in the
broad, historical background furnished, and emphasis is laid on the
social side. Attention is directed to the influence of occupation on
community life, the growth of trade and trade centers and the
manner in which these have shifted and developed, to the concen-
tration of industries as conditioned by environment, and the climate
and soils of areas where raw materials are produced. A general

THE DEWEY SCHOOL

view is sought of routes of trade and means of transportation in
the development of commerce.

In the factory stage emphasis is laid upon the invention of ma-
chines, showing the utilization of the forces in nature which give
increased production. A review is made of machines from primitive
times to the present. The mechanics of each are worked out, and a
mathematical calculation is made of the amount of work done by
each.

A study of different fabrics due to the structure and nature of
fiber is made, determining texture, hydroscopic nature, relation to
warmth, inflammability, etc. Chemical processes involved in the
separation of waste material were worked out in the preparation of
raw material, the scouring, dyeing, and steaming.

Since space does not permit a complete statement of the whole
scheme, the primitive stage has been selected to show the method
of work. As an introduction, seven-year-old children gather together
what they know from experience of the difference in quality of
four typical kinds of cloth— wool, silk, cotton, and linen. They ex-
amine their own clothing, pull to pieces samples of similar ma-
terials, and get an idea of different types of fiber. They select the
fiber which they think was probably used by peoples in primitive
conditions (that requiring the least preparation) and reach their
conclusions by means of the following process. They unwind the
silk from a cocoon, find it fine, delicate, and difficult to handle.
They remove the cotton from the bolls and separate the seeds from
the fibers— a tedious task. Retted and unretted flax shows the long
process of decay necessary to remove the fibers from the stalk. The
wool, however, which can be twisted easily into thread with the
fingers, is invariably selected. Each step in the process is so de-
pendent on the nature of the material that the children can make
the steps logically and independently. A fleece is examined, and
methods of shearing talked over. The next step in order would be
a visit to a sheep ranch. If this is impossible, the children can
substitute photographs and stories of personal experiences. The
relative quality of the different parts of the fleece is observed and
also the duties of the wool sorter. Feltings, tarred locks, brands,
and wool from lower parts of the legs are removed and spun into
coarser yarn. The long, clean wool from neck, breast, and shoulders
is made into yarn for the finer cloth. The back is usually full of
burrs and more or less matted and requires care to get into shape
for spinning. The children work out the process in detail by a
series of experiments. Each child tries spinning both "scoured" and
raw wool for the purpose of comparison. The oily fibers of the raw
wool slip apart easily; the harsh, dry fibers of the scoured wool
are matted together and are hard to manipulate. Thus they find from

BACKGROUNDS OF SOCIAL LIFE 333

experience the reason for using unsecured wool for hand spinning.

In order to spin wool in any quantity, burrs and dirt are first
removed from the raw wool. One child suggested in order to facili-
tate the process: "If you spread the fibers like a cobweb, the dirt
will fall out." Three questions were raised in the course of the work:
How would the fibers have to be arranged to make an even thread?
How would dirt interfere? How would cross-fibers interfere with
the evenness of the thread? At the end of the lesson the children
formulated the purpose and method of carding. The clean, fluffy
mass of wool was drawn out in a long * 'sliver" one inch wide. Where
thin places occurred, they fitted in loose strands of wool. This
gave them a clearer idea of the interlocking of the wool, due to
the wavy character of the fiber. Carding implements were worked
out. The fleece, as a whole, and even raw wool were new to nearly
all the children. Many questions were asked concerning it, such
as: "What is the difference between hair and wool?" Wool and hair
were examined under the microscope and sketches made of the
microscopic appearance of the two, showing the rough, scaly sur-
face of the wool. The children twisted the drawn-out sliver of wool
to make a thread by rolling it between their fingers on the knee.
When the sliver was too thick, the wool simply matted together;
it would not lock to make a hard twisted thread. They tested the
difference between matted wool and spun thread, experimented to
find the greatest number of fibers which would spin without mat-
ting, and finally gathered smooth twigs in an open lot near by and
wound their spun thread on it to prevent tangling.

The child easily discovers that when the end of the thread is left
free and the twig is dropped, the twist is lost and the thread un-
wound. He reasons that by twirling the twig in the opposite direc-
tion the twig can be made to do the work he had previously done
by rolling against his knee* He discovers also that when the twig
is weighted with thread it draws out the carded wool and assists
in the spinning. So the twig is weighted artificially with clay, stone,
or wood, and the wheel is suggested with its use in balancing and
giving greater speed to the spinning. The advantage of having
the wheel in the shape of a disk is worked out by the children
realizing that an uneven distribution of weight interferes with the
smoothness of the motion of the spindle.

The distaff and spindle were made in the shop, and each child
practiced spinning a fine, smooth thread. They compared this with
hand-spinning and showed that it took less time and labor to pro-
duce the same amount of thread, many more fibers being made to
interlock, and the thread more uniformly twisted. Thus, by com-
parison, they were brought to realize the use of this first advance
step in spinning. The thread was made rather fine for weaving. It

334 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

was compared with the factory yarn, which was unraveled and found
to consist of three and four strands. Separating these strands they
found the twisted parallel fibers of wool. After having analyzed the
structure of the thread in this manner, they prepared to make
"three-ply" yarn of the thread they had spun. They worked out the
idea that the strands would have to be spun together in the same
manner as they had spun the yarn, that the various strands would
have to be drawn out evenly, thus necessitating a frame on which
the bobbins could revolve.

The yarn was finally ready to be scoured and dyed. From previous
experience the children knew the yarn would have to be in loose
hanks to dye evenly. They wound the skeins about the backs of
two chairs, one child delivering the yarn from the bobbin while
another regulated it. They found it slow work and succeeded in
making very small skeins. They decided to make something similar
to the bobbin frame upon which to wind the skeins. Colonial reels
were examined, and a simple one made in the shop. The yarn from
the spindles was wound into loose hanks for dyeing. The yarn
was scoured and dyed in the science periods.

As a preparation for weaving, cloth was examined and its struc-
ture and texture compared with the mats and baskets they had
previously woven. The fact that weaving of materials that did not
require spinning must have long preceded the invention of spin-
ning was shown in the following manner. The textile work of the
primitive peoples of today was examined and found to consist
chiefly of grasses and various other raw materials. The beaten
bark or "tapa" of the Hawaiians was examined to show the inter-
lacing of the fibers. The probable discovery of the shepherd who-
found the cast fleece matted together after the exposure to rain
and sun was told as a story. The effect of water and heat on wool
was tried and in some cases resulted in a fine piece of felt. The
weaving of a rush mat from the chance placing of the reeds, form-
ing a sort of pattern on the clay floor of a primitive hut, was given
as a probable origin of pattern weaving. The children gave the
cocoon, the bird's nest, and the spider's web as instances of weav-
ing. In the cloth the interlacing was found to be regularly adjusted
into two sets of threads, respectively "warp" and "woof." Each
child explained his way of constructing a loom. Two rods held
the warp in position; two cross-rods kept it stretched; and a weav-
ing needle was used to insert the woof. The woof and warp were
made of the thread the children had spun. . . .

The inspection of different fabrics and fibers for the sake of
forming a conclusion regarding their adaptability to certain pur-
poses gives training to the children's powers of observation. These
are ideal occasions for both sense training and discipline in thought.

BACKGROUNDS OF SOCIAL LIFE 335

The weakness of ordinary lessons in observation, calculated to train
the senses, is that they have no outlet beyond themselves and hence
no necessary motive. In the natural life of the individual and the
race, there is always a reason for sense observation. There is always
some need coming from an end to be reached that makes one look
about to discover and discriminate whatever will assist him. Nor-
mal sensations operate as clues, as aids, as stimuli in directing ac-
tivity in what has to be done; they are not ends in themselves. . . .

Again this method involves the exercise of judgment. The ability
to think and the method of thinking are part and parcel of all the
reinventing and the rediscovering. Thinking does not occur for its
own sake; it is not an end in itself. It arises from the need of meet-
ing some difficulty, in reflecting upon the best way of overcoming it,
and thus leads to planning, to projecting mentally the end to be
reached, and deciding upon the steps necessary. The tool and method
of going to work are always seen to be dependent upon the material
on the one side and the result to be attained on the other. These be-
ing given, to find the third term is the problem, surely as logical an
exercise as any in geometry. It has the added advantage of being
concrete and of calling the constructive imagination into play. . . .

All of the activities correlate with the historical work and give a
background which makes the later study of economics much more
fruitful and concrete. Similar connections are made with the nature
study as regards the materials used and the plants and animals pro-
ducing them, with physical geography as regards conditions of soil
or climate and the sources of the raw materials, and with commercial
geography as regards the manufacture and distribution of the fin-
ished products.

Manual construction is continuously required. Each child carries
out his idea into concrete form. The shop becomes the laboratory
where he manufactures his spindle or his loom, and the color or
design of the working plan all enlist the aid of the art department.

All of these aspects meet in and radiate from the continuous and
direct activity or occupation of the children themselves. From the
standpoint of the child there is but one thing going on. He is
occupied with making things, with weaving, designing, cutting; he
is busy doing something which appeals alike to feeling, perception,
imagination, judgment, and manual skill. All of his power and
emotions are utilized in an activity which interests him.

CHAPTER XVII

EXPERIMENTAL

ACTIVITIES DEVELOPING SKILLS
IN COMMUNICATION AND EXPRESSION

JLHE third group of studies in the Laboratory School's
curricular classification included reading, writing, the more
technical forms of measurement, and the various arts of ex-
pression. The children of the school gradually awoke to the
need and grew into an appreciation of the use of these various
forms of intellectual communication and inquiry. This need
and appreciation were met in and developed out of the daily
activities of their steadily enlarging program. As the physical
organism increases in size and ability to function only as it
takes in and assimilates food suitable to its needs, so mental
growth occurs only as knowledge is used in action to enlarge
the meaning of action and further its end. Judgment to select
and skill to use knowledge are essential to its swift assimila-
tion into experience. In the immature child, certain original
impulses are available, and the growth of the child depends
upon their exercise.1 The social impulse shows itself in con-
versation, personal intercourse, and communication. Gesture
and language are the simplest form of the social expression of
a child. They arise out of need to communicate something
about a social situation. Language, therefore, in these early
stages of growth, is used primarily as a means of social com-
munication and not for the expression of thought.
The instinct to self-expression in action is one of the earliest

i These are roughly classified by Mr. Dewey as: (i) the social, (2) the
constructive, (3) the investigative, and (4) the expressive. This classification
he still further simplifies by finding that, in the process of development,
(3) and (4) grow out of (2) and (i).

336

DEVELOPING SKILLS IN EXPRESSION 337

of the developing impulses. The dawn of social consciousness,
however, follows soon, and with it there is born the desire to
share, to tell about the results of activity. These may be daubs
of color on paper, a weird clay man, a house of blocks, or the
story of a day's doings, but each in turn is the concrete embodi-
ment of the child's idea. Under the stimulus of this desire to
communicate to others he searches for and welcomes all ways
and means of letting others know what he has done and of
finding out a still better way of doing. This then is the psy-
chological moment to teach him the means for such sharing of
his ideas.

USE OF LANGUAGE DURING EARLY STAGES OF GROWTH

Beginning with a hit-and-miss method, the subsequent end-
less experimentation of a baby in producing sounds is rein-
forced by the selective response of adults. He gradually elim-
inates the sounds which are not language and builds up,
through imitation, a word vocabulary in which each word is
always related to an actual object or situation. He retains those
sounds or words which bring him food, comfort, and the con-
dition of play which he desires. Similarly, he later patterns
his sentence structure after that of the adults in the spon-
taneous conversation of the home, and "I" replaces "me" after
many efforts.

In this school, which was in character a continuation of the
home, each recitation was preeminently a social meeting place
where organized spontaneous conversation went on along dif-
ferent lines. It was the social clearing-house in which experi-
ences and ideas were exchanged and subjected to criticism,
where misconceptions were corrected and new lines of thought
and inquiry set up.

Although the consecutive study of the place and function
of language in this school, either oral or written, was never
summarized, certain observations as to the child's interests and
attainments in verbal and written expression can be made:
first, as to the incidental use of all verbal or written symbols
as forms of social expression, particularly in the first stage of

338 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

growth and In the second, as to the gradual development by the
child of conscious recognition of need for and skill in the formu-
lation and use of the rules of grammatical construction and of
those traits which give literary distinction and form to writing
as the expression of thought and emotion.

Continual contact with actual experience stimulated the
children to a full and free use of language. Each child always
had a variety of material and facts in his mind to talk about,
and his language constantly became more refined and full be-
cause controlled by realities. Little by little the written symbols
for the words already familiar to his tongue and ear were in-
troduced, still in natural relation to experience. By them the
child found he could keep track of his work from day to day;
by them he could give to others the results of his own special
activity; and by them his own consciousness was widened. He
thus himself discovered the use of written language in its
natural relation to experience.

The occasions in which his attention was directed to form
in either spoken or written language were the same as those
in actual life, situations outside of the school. They were the re-
ports of work to the general assembly, for the newspaper, or
for an individual contribution to a group story or play. At
such times of formulation and composition, hints were given
as to clarity in sentence structure, as well as the use of climax
and interest. The child thus became conscious of the structure
of the sentence, of the place and use of modifying words in
phrases, and of the position of the latter in the sentence, and
of the need for paragraph form. Finally he came to see that
a unified structure which has clarity and climactic interest
depends upon order and sequence of the material. In the oral
delivery of these contributions, help in proper enunciation,
posture and interpretation found its natural place. Expert di-
rection was welcome because the children felt the need of being
able consciously to correct their faults and gain in ability to
express their ideas by voice and gesture.

The teaching of language was at all times a subject of dis-
cussion and concern for all teachers. It was of untold advantage
that the teaching was never divorced from reality. The chil-

DEVELOPING SKILLS IN EXPRESSION 339,

dren's records were the accounts of their daily experiences and
showed unusual clarity and a certain literary flavor. An ap-
preciation of the color quality inherent in words was cultivated
and developed by constant dramatization of situations and
characters. This was helped on by the enjoyment of good
stories, which were used sparingly, as they should be, and were
of such character that they reinforced and thus became an
integral part or expression of the children's own experiences.
Conversation was the means of developing and directing,
experiences and enterprises in all the classrooms. The small size
of the groups made individual contribution to the group ex-
perience possible. Each day's recitation was a debate, a dis-
cussion of the pros and cons of the next step in the group's
activity. The comparative ease with which these children were
able to debate in their subsequent secondary and college ex-
perience showed the worth of this type of recitation. Initiative
and freedom in any situation were characteristics of the older
children of this school. Language was to them all a tool by
which they could convey to others the effect produced on
them by some fact, event, or social situation. It had come to-
be more than a means of social communication; it was a
medium of expressing thought. In the secondary period, there-
fore, these children were ready to enter into a conscious analysis-
of language as such and to generalize and formulate rules which
would help them attain the skill demanded by literary tastes*
and artistic standards.

USE OF NUMBER AND TOOLS OF MEASUREMENT

The instinct to measure by counting, which is also a form of
communication, springs to consciousness in response to a felt
need in the social situation of a little child. It is continually
reinforced by adults' repetitions of nursery rhymes, such as<
"One, Two, Buckle My Shoe." By the time the four-year-old
child arrives at school he has in his own experience a back-
ground of contact and acquaintance with social and physical
realities. Out of this fertile soil will grow his first concepts of
the use of the symbols of language, quantity, or value. Just as-

34o THE DEWEY SCHOOL

he has quite an extensive vocabulary and consciously uses it
to supply his needs and express his crude ideas, so he has some-
thing of a conception of the use of numbers to evaluate his
possessions (in the sense of knowing to a limited extent how
many marbles he has). Of the meaning of numbers in its more
technical and implicit meaning, that of measuring with meas-
ured units, he has, as yet, no consciousness, just as he has, as yet,
no conception of the use of language as a medium of expressing
thought. The underlying psychology of language and number
are, therefore, seen to be similar. Both are forms of intellectual
communication with oral and written conventionalized symbols
that stand for ideas. The use of both first arises out of the need
to get over to some one else something important in the physi-
cal or social situation. By conscious design the child met, in
the school, a constantly increasing demand for the use of lan-
guage and number symbols. In the latter, the idea of quantity
in concrete form always preceded and accompanied the use of
abstract number symbols.

For the younger children the teaching of language and num-
ber went on in relation to the daily activities of the child. The
sub-primary child of four or five, as he set the table for
luncheon, at first laid down one spoon each for Mary, John,
and Ellen. His next step, when standjpg by the silver basket,
was to count out loud, "One, two, three, no! four, one for the
teacher/' When, however, he replied to the teacher's question,
"How many persons are coming to lunch?" by answering,
"Four," and then, going to the silver basket, counted the right
number of spoons, he showed that he had begun to use words
as symbols. The importance of this appreciation by the child
of the connection between the concrete situation and the
symbol, the linking in his mind of the concrete situation to the
symbol, cannot be over emphasized. A child who has not made
this connection often goes on repeating his "one, two," etc., up
to eight or nine, with frequent omission of one or two of the
series. This is because he does not comprehend the meaning
of the enumeration, because he has never linked counting to
a concrete situation where there is a need for counting. When
"four" means to him not only four people, four spoons, etc.,

DEVELOPING SKILLS IN EXPRESSION 341

but means, in addition, a way of matching these unlike things
through the agency of a number symbol common to both, he
may be said to have begun to count.

In his cooking at the school the child learned that one cup
of flaked rice took one cup of water. He compared one cup of
flaked rice with a granular cereal on a balance and found that
the smaller bulk, but same weight of the latter also required one
cup of water. When he found by measuring that he had one
fourth cup of this cereal, it was not difficult for him to conclude
that one fourth of a cup of a certain kind of cereal will take
four times its quantity of water to cook properly. He then ex-
perimented with another cereal and found that it requires only
twice as much. His use of numbers in the two experiments-
brings him to his first end, the ascertaining of the amount of
water that both cereals require. He then compares the two and
uses numbers as a means to express this comparison in symbolic
form. He has now taken another step, passing to an apprecia-
tion of the idea of ratio which is implicit in all numbers.

This concrete manipulation of quantity included compari-
sons of weights and distances, and so on, and was followed by
a more definite use of the symbols of enumeration and rela-
tion for the purpose of anticipating consequences and, there-
fore, controlling results.

From a qualitative judgment of amount the child progresses
to a definite control of quantity through symbols. Still an-
other step is made as the child learns the different kinds of
measures. Instead of halving the length of string to find half
of the garden (the method of the young child), the older meas-
ured with the yardstick and divided the number by two. In
one activity he uses the ruler. In another he must regulate his
action by a unit of time. With the idea that his actions are
controlled by a time-unit, he gets his first approach to the se-
quence of on-going events, in home situations as well as in
school. The youngest group visited the baker's shop, saw the
oven and the utensils which were used in cooking. The head
baker made some little cakes, while the children watched to
get some idea of the process. They waited fifteen minutes to
see them taken out, which gave the children a deeper interest

342 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

in time and its measurement by the clock. They gradually
discovered there was a time for everything, a time for work, a
time for play, a time to sleep, and a time to eat. When the
clock in the kindergarten said it was time to begin or stop
work or play, it was a universal law to be obeyed by both
teachers and pupils. When the question arose, "Can't I do
just a few more?" the answer came, "But the clock says it is
time to put the work away," and this was accepted without
dispute. This conception of what time is functions so differ-
ently at different ages that the stage at which he perfects
different ideas needs more recorded observations by many
teachers. Where activities of a child's environment are defi-
nitely regulated by the time seasons, as in rural situations, the
latter with their causes will be taught much earlier than with
children not so situated. City children, isolated from nature,
may get this knowledge through the importance of the calendar
to a people whose activities they are studying.

A child becomes interested not only in the origin of the sym-
bols for number, but in measurement units of all kinds.
Through his appreciation of primitive man's use of sun and
moon as time measurers, he takes interest in his own calendar.
This generally happens first in connection with something that
intimately concerns him, such as his own birthday or the
first day of school. His ability to read the clock, which has
been progressing slowly, is usually perfected about this time.
His ideas continually enlarge through his daily experience.
Whereas once he measured his garden by the number of his
own paces, he now begins to use the yardstick or the ruler to
find how his patch compares with the length of his neighbor's.
A study of the Phoenicians, who adapted and simplified
through use the symbols of the scholarly Assyrians and Egyp-
tians, gave the child of eight the historical basis of our present
alphabets and numerical systems. At this age children begin,
because of their needs, to grow eager for facility in ordinary
number combinations. They gladly submit to drill in order
to attain such facility. If they are allowed to discover for them-
selves such things as the place of digits, tens, hundreds, etc.,
in our system of notation, they work out their own rules for

DEVELOPING SKILLS IN EXPRESSION 343

adding and subtracting, multiplying and dividing. When a
child in the school found it necessary to add % and % of a
foot he proceeded in natural logical fashion from the known
to the unknown. He knew one foot as 12 inches. He then con-
sulted the ruler and saw that the % is 4 inches and that % is
3 inches. Their sum he easily calculated as 7 inches or %2 °^ a
foot. Then, if ready for such abstractions, he would himself
say that to add fractions they must be the same "kind of parts
of anything." He was then ready to add a quarter and a half-
dollar, usually by saying that a half is 2 quarters, so he has
3 quarters. He was, however, often able to do this concretely
for some time before he was able to state what is done when
fractions are added. At this stage, he was given the terms
numerator and denominator and understood that the figure
above the line tells the number of parts taken, while the one
below tells how many of these parts there are in a unit. As the
work often involved the use of fractions the child liked this
new and convenient tool. He did not have to go back to the
ruler or the cup each time and count how much he had. The
ability to abstract and formulate began gradually at about
nine years of age.

The hard-and-fast distinction between arithmetic and algebra
was broken down in various ways, such as the use of letters to
represent quantities when writing formulae for examples (base
x rate = percentage (bxr = p). In early practice in weighing,
the idea of an equation was given as a way of representing the
drawing power of the earth on different objects. The earth-
pull on an object on one side of the balance is equal to the
earth-pull on a number of objects on the other (i. e., the
weights) and was represented symbolically in series as x (the
unknown weight) = a + b + c.

As the children made simple machines, scales, a wheeled
cart, a wheelbarrow, a potter's wheel, small and large looms,
a pile-driver, a foot automobile, they formulated and made use
of equations of ratios and proportion. This kind of concrete
experience enabled them to identify the various kinds of levers
in their machines. They studied the principle of the nut
cracker, traced the invention of the wheeled cart, and discovered

344 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

the advantage gained through the invention of the hub. They
discovered the advantage of the wheelbarrow and the principle
involved in gears, in clocks, and locks; they studied the use and
transfer of energy in the treadle and spindle of a spinning-
wheel or in the gear of a bicycle. All of this work was used
as offering occasions for the child to investigate and discover
for himself the everyday uses of mechanical principles in-
volved in the various kinds of balances and pulleys and to
point out the differences by the use of diagram and equation.
The children continually used ratio with skill and apprecia-
tion in demonstrating the relation of the diameter of wheels
to the circumference or the laws of the three types of levers.
Such use in genuine situations and with simple machines
furthers a child's intellectual understanding of the compli-
cated mechanisms and intricate arithmetical formulae used in
work with the intricate forms of machines, which he sees and
deals with later.

Mechanical drawing was used in making compasses, and a
simple astrolade, in calculating the hour circle and distances on
a globe, and in finding latitude from the altitude of the north
star. These problems served as an introduction to and use of
intuitive geometrical demonstrations.

To the mathematician, who has forgotten the way he came,
it seems a long jump from the child's use of number in count-
ing out his blocks, or in the control of his game, to the
physicist's use of measurement in the construction of a work-
ing theory of matter. To the psychologist and to the educator
the need of number for control through its function of evalua-
tion is die same for the child in his concrete world, as for
the physicist in his.

An historical study of the slow development of arithmetic
will give guiding principles to the teacher of little children.
Originating as a means of trade control, it passed slowly
through the rule-otthumb period and has just culminated in
the most modern of engineering exploits. When the teacher
realizes how late in the race development abstraction occurs,
he will be content to multiply endlessly the occasions to use

DEVELOPING SKILLS IN EXPRESSION 345

number concretely in his dealings with young children. At all
times, he must watch for the psychological time and place to
introduce symbols and the opportunity to formulate generali-
zations.

The recognition that the complicated formulae of the
physicist as a means of valuation and control have evolved
from a simple use of counting by the savage gave important
educational implications for those directing this experiment.
It gave confidence in the outcome of this approach to mathe-
matical method. It eliminated the too frequent unintelligent
and often blind following of historical details without refer-
ence to their relation to the needs and demands of physical
and social situations. With aid and under direction as he plays
his games and makes his simple and more complex machines,
a child can be led to understand and use the principles and
formulae of control in the more and more abstract forms,
which finally eventuate in the various algebraic and trigono-
metric formulae and, at the college level, in differential func-
tions and calculus. With such mathematical training, based
on the appreciation of each step through concrete demonstra-
tion, a student, as he passes from field to field in mathematics,
is quite aware that he is simply using more and more refined
tools to control the heterogeneous miscellany of the physical
and social world. Always, at whatever stage, number was taught
not as number but as a means through which some activity,
undertaken on its own account, was rendered more orderly
and effective. In this way it afforded insight into the ways in
which man actually employs numerical relations in social life.

On the whole the more direct modes of activity, the con-
struction and occupational work, the scientific observation
and experimentation, presented plenty of opportunities for the
necessary use of reading, writing, spelling, and number work.
These subjects, therefore, were not isolated studies, but were
introduced as organic outgrowths of the child's daily experi-
ence. The problem was always to take advantage of these op-
portunities in a systematic and progressive way. When this
was done successfully, the children needed to devote much less

346 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

time to tool study than is usually the case. It was also found
that at certain periods of their development the children
enjoyed playing with symbols just as babies, learning to talk,
play with words. At a later age when given accurate com-
passes and ruler, children find similar pleasure in the possi-
bilities of geometric design.

There were mistakes and failures made in this new way of
teaching the time-honored subjects. With certain groups of
children the teaching of writing and reading was postponed
too long, with the result that certain children had progressed
intellectually so far that the belated learning of the symbols,
which at an earlier period would have been enjoyed, was
irksome. Such children often marked time, as it were, and only
learned to read when a special interest stimulated them to the
necessary effort.

Experience repeatedly showed that in those studies where
mastery of technique or special method was necessary, there
was need for a periodic concentration and alternation in the
time devoted to them. When a group, for example, found them-
selves weak in a certain arithmetical operation or in language
expression and, therefore, handicapped in their other work,
work on this was emphasized until the children exhibited to
their own satisfaction a power and skill sufficient to enable
them to go ahead in an independent fashion.

This method of teaching gave rise to the conviction that
children should learn that mathematical expressions only cover
a part of experience with physical things, that mathematics is a
tool which fits only a certain kind of universe, and that its
expressions cannot be used as a basis of the whole of experience*
They should be aware that much is still unknown of mathe-
matical relations, and that the latter leave other kinds of rela-
tions untouched. They thus gain no concept that all experience
is mechanical and mathematically measurable, but are left with
many open doors through which individual thinking may pass.
In conclusion, it is not too much to say that the children of
this school used the symbols of language and calculation more
intelligently and less mechanically than most, and with a cer-
tain sense of power in their expression.

DEVELOPING SKILLS IN EXPRESSION 347

ARTISTIC EXPRESSION

The drama and literature, the music, modeling and paint-
ing of the school program, all the expressive activities at all
stages of growth, were the child's means of social intercourse,
his modes of communication, as well as avenues for individual
expression. As he developed in this carefully guided experi-
ence, first steps grew into finer and fuller expressions of social
and constructive impulses. It was the ideal and the hope of the
school that all the developing play of productive and manipu-
lating activities, the play which is not mere amusement or
recreation, should become surcharged with joy and satisfac-
tion in its performance and with such social and scientific
meanings that this association, once made, should never be
lost.

In a recent letter recalling memories of her Dewey School
days, one of the older pupils of the school writes:

To outsiders who did not understand what went on, the daily
curriculum seemed a grand jubilee. Children apparently played
through history and English classes, cooked through arithmetic and
science hours, and so on. Surely no real study went on with such
antics; surely no essentials of grammar grades and high schools were
learned. Then, to a confused amazement, the supposed madcaps
entered colleges and universities and acquitted themselves creditably
with conventionally prepared students.

This memory seems to indicate that the school work of those
days was often like play, a freely productive sort of activity
that filled the imagination and the emotions of the writer as
well as her hands to such a degree that thirty years later she
still thrills with its joyful memories.

Drama played a large part in these activities. In the early
years, the classroom work was often a continued play of the
unfolding drama of human life. The children handled raw
materials of many kinds and had the satisfaction of shaping
them to their own planned ends. Under guidance these results
grew into more and more finished products of greater mean-
ing and artistic value. It has been well said that: 2 "Art is not

2 John Dewey, "Culture and Industry in Education/' The Educational Bi-
Monthly, Vol. i, No. i.

348 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

an outer product nor an outer behavior. It is an attitude of
spirit, a state of mind— one which demands for its satisfaction
and fulfilling a shaping of matter to new and more significant
form. To feel the meaning of what one is doing and to re-
joice in that meaning, to unite in one concurrent fact the
unfolding of die inner life and the ordered development of
material conditions— that is art."

The school seems to have had a groping faith that genuine
artistic expression in any medium may grow out of the manual
arts and carry on to their spiritual meaning many of the
processes of everyday life. This did not mean that all art work
was to be correlated in detail with the other work of the
school, but that there was a spirit of union which gave vitality
to the art, and depth and richness to the other work. It recog-
nized that art work involves physical organs, the eye and hand,
the ear and voice, however, ideally. As Mr. Dewey has some-
where said, "It is something more than the mere technical skill
required by the organs of expression; it involves an idea, a
thought, a spiritual rendering of things, and yet it is other
than any number of ideas by themselves, it is a living union o£
thought and the instrument of expression." It was dimly
realized, therefore, that the artistic attitude is the ideal atti-
tude of interest, and that if a child could be animated by such
interest, he would bring forth results in his activities that
would be accompanied by an enrichment of his intellectual
and emotional life. As the woodwork, drawing, painting, music,
language, or drama proved an aid in extending the meaning
of what a child did and gave a motive to develop technique,
it also enlarged into the realm of an artistic means of expres-
sion.

It was always a hope that each child would enjoy every sub-
ject studied at some, if not all, phases of its development and
thus grow into something of a sense of its esthetic quality. This
appreciation of the quality of a subject depends upon the stand-
ards that the child, at one time or another, has formed of its
value in his immediate experience. It also depends upon how
the range of his inevitably limited direct experience has been
enlarged and deepened in its meaning through language and all

DEVELOPING SKILLS IN EXPRESSION 349

symbolic forms of intercourse with the similar experiences of
others. As these connections multiplied, the children liked
more and more to share the meaning of their activities and dis-
covered that language was a good tool for telling about them.
They also became more able and willing to listen sympatheti-
cally to the accounts of others. Thoughts took form -in words.
Certain words or arrangements of words expressed thoughts
better than others and, when arranged in a certain order, ex-
pressed it more clearly and more beautifully. Little by little be-
cause its use was daily and hourly related to his living, the child
came to realize that language was the medium, par excellence,
for telling about his actions and thoughts. Step by step he woke
to its inherent value and beauty.

LITERARY EXPRESSION

The need to formulate the meaning of their activities, either
in conversation or in an oral or written report, in recipe or
rule for procedure, in mathematics or in the laboratory, in
verse for songs, or in dramatic form for formal plays, arose
for the most part out of the actual situation of the classroom
or the imagined ones of the historical times they were reliving.
All actions, involving as they did constant communication of
all sorts, developed great freedom of expression and inter-
course. Conversations and discussions formed the basis out
of which ability to debate developed. Oral reports grew to
monologues and took on a vague similarity to the oration,
while written reports from words and short sentences grew
with enlarging horizons and developing ability and skill to
essays, biographies, or stories. These also gradually took on
the form of artistic expression. Because they formulated the
meaning of each child's actual experience, they were often
tinged with the flavor of his own imaginative interpretation
and brought home to him, as to others, the vitality of his ex-
perience.

Clarity and simple, forceful use of words were ideals sought
for the children in their reports which were often reviews of
the day's, the week's, or the term's work. Through the use of

35o THE DEWEY SCHOOL

the school's printing-press by the older children, dictated re-
ports of those children, not yet able to use the written sym-
bols, were made available as reading lessons. These took on
such form as:

We can sew.

Suppose you had no needle?

"What would you do for clothing?

Some boys say they would wear a goat's skin.

The youngest children, for the most part, acted out their
songs and stories, getting thus a clearer idea of them and a
greater sympathy with the characters. These plays and stories
continually increased in scope and content. The three- and
four-year-olds, in their occupational plays such as that of the
dry goods store, were usually content with the mere activity of
buying and selling, without specifying what they wished to
buy. At five years they carried out their plays in minute detail,
and had the cashier, cash boys, clerks, bundle-wrappers, and
a horse and delivery wagon, using the vocabulary and char-
acteristic dramatic expressions. They bought only things found
in dry-goods stores and often tried them on to see if they would
fit. The dramas of Group IV (seven years) were of their history,
the study of primitive life.

It was found that when the children wrote their own read-
ing lessons, their reading was purely memory work. So the
teacher resorted to composing certain key sentences herself.
With these to start from, the children supplied the background
of detail, showing a great interest in the composition, changing
the sentences when they were not euphonious or suggesting
words that might sound better. On occasion, pauses were
made to discuss the words under consideration and some for
blackboard work in the building of words. When interest in
such technique flagged, the composition was continued. The
teacher 8 of seven-year-olds reported:

The materials which were chosen for their reading lessons were
taken chiefly from their history, with occasional changes to other
subjects, shop-work, or cooking. It soon became evident that their

8 Wynne Laskerstein.

DEVELOPING SKILLS IN EXPRESSION 351

power to give a definite account of their work and their interest in
doing it were in direct ratio to the degree of activity involved in
the original lesson. It was often impossible to obtain a clear state-
ment of their history, even on the day in which it had been pre-
sented to them, and frequently different members of the group would
give contradictory statements with regard to the most essential point.
But whenever hand-work was the subject of discussion they recalled
with comparative ease the desired details.

A notably successful lesson was the result of a talk about the
making of their looms. Sentences were put on the blackboard by
the teacher as the children gave them and were read and reread by
the class. A list was made of the new words, chiefly names of tools,
and a drill upon these was given by acting out the uses of the
various tools. Individual children were chosen to direct the action
by pointing to certain words or to find on the blackboard the name
of the tool which the others were using. The children were delighted
with the lesson. The next day they were eager to write the new words
and spent the entire period at the blackboard without signs of fa-
tigue. They called this writing "putting the tools in their shop,"
and one boy insisted upon buying each tool from the teacher before
he wrote its name, gravely proffering imaginary money and insisting
that the tool be wrapped up in paper and duly delivered.

* In the next quarter the reading for the group was based
on the history work— a study of primitive man. In the begin-
ning much time was devoted to keeping a record of their
study, which was printed by the older groups. Book covers
were made, and the records were used as reading lessons. They
then began to retell the story of Ab which one of the teachers
had read to them. This extended from day to day. Much of it
was dictated by the children. The language of the original
story was drawn on freely, but the thought was so padded with
their own imaginative thinking that in the end it came to be
a new story of their own. Additional characters were intro-
duced who operated in different situations according to the
children's original plan. The story speaks for itself, indicating
a growing appreciation and increasing skill of expression. In
their compositions they were kept to simple sentence structure,
but no limit was put on vocabulary. As each child gave his
part, it was written on the board for the others to read. Much
time was spent each day in picking out familiar words and

* Teacher, Margaret Hoblitt.

THE DEWEY SCHOOL

learning new ones from their reading lessons. The origin and
phonetics of these were often discussed.

Most of the children in this group had not at that time
reached any degree of ease in reading, but all had a desire to
read. Four of them had done a little reading in books, be-
ginning with the simple repetitive stories such as "Henny
Penny" and "Cock Robin.*' They had not yet reached the stage
of doing any independent writing, although as a group they
wrote two scenes of a dramatic play based on the story of
primitive people* Individual children suggested the dialogue,
and the others agreed or changed it until they were all satis-
fied. This work was then written on the board for the class to
copy.

As Group V, these children followed their Phoenician sailors
to the Mediterranean seaport of Venice and thence embarked
on a study of the world wanderings of explorers. The best
available story of the life of each explorer was read by the
children. They then summed up the chief points and wrote
their own records. The books containing these stories were
left where the children could get them and read further if
they so desired. The life of Columbus came first, and the pres-
ence in Jackson Park of the models of the Nina, Pinta, Santa
Maria, and the convent of La Rabida added interest to the
story. These written reports culminated in a play about
Columbus which was written for and produced at one of the
general assemblies. Its production involved much constructive,
as well as expressive, effort and finally drew into cooperation
most of the school.5

At ten years of age, Group VII was interested in arithmetic
to such an extent that they undertook the writing of a text-
book. The children composed many of their own problems, and
considerable attention was given in this group and in Group
IX to the formal statement of generalizations in concise and
finished English. The latter group was much interested in the
logic of the syllogistic statement. Better order in the written
work was an aim which seemed of great imporance at this

5 For a statement of the language expression of Group VI, see Chapter
VIII.

DEVELOPING SKILLS IN EXPRESSION 353

age to one of the most successful teachers of mathematics, for
with the ability to formulate and arrange in exact and logical
fashion went a commensurate increase in self-confidence.

In science, too, the most successful statements of the results
of observation or experimentation were those that expressed
the meaning of things seen or experienced so that they were
understood, and became significant and indicative of new pos-
sibilities to mutually interested individuals. Knowledge of the
right words, of sentence structure necessary to the formal state-
ment of facts observed, problems to be solved, the premises of
an hypothesis, or the conclusive evidence of an experiment—
all were points of skill necessary for each child in order that
he might make his daily observations and experiences in the
laboratory or the field excursion successful and, therefore,
intelligible and vitally significant to his group. For adequate
and successful interpretation of the scientific meanings of his
daily life, so that they were progressively helpful in new ex-
periences, both to himself and others, a child must have a suit-
able scientific vocabulary and an adequate technique in ex-
pression. The children planned as a group and talked over
their experiments in advance, but each child wrote an in-
dividual report of his own work.

This group, dissatisfied with their Dewey School song, wished
to write something more dignified and from their study of
literature took the subject of the Adventures of Odysseus. In
the composition of both music and poem they sought to use
as many beautiful phrases and expressions as possible.

ODYSSEUS

Land not here! For here dwell the Kine of the Sun,

And Zeus would send a thunderbolt should you in your hunger harm

one.

Yet they heeded not my words,
But beached their ships upon the shore,
And when I woke from sleep,
I found the roasting flesh midst fires roar.

Hence sailed we on mid storm and wind and wave
And nearer to our Fate we drew— striving our lives to save-
In vain, for I alone escaped,

354 THE DEWEY SCHOOL

And drifted toward the fatal rock
Where dire Charybdis sucks the sea
And casts it forth with fearful shock.

Once again, saved by Athena the fair,

I drifted toward a flowery isle, and quietly slumbered there.

Then down the beach Calypso came

And to her grotto welcomed me.

Mid clustering vines and rippling streams

For years I rested peacefully.

At the dose of another ten weeks of work (two and one half
periods each week and one period of a half-hour of study hour)
the individual records of Group VIII (eleven years) were
"pieced together" to form a connected story of the formation of
calcareous and sedimentary rocks in detail, and of land in
general. Oral and written language were given separate con-
sideration only with Group VIII in a course of English. Groups
VII, VIII, and IX took over a good share of the printing of
songs, poems, reading lessons, programs, records, or plays in
English, French, or German for the whole school.

Latin, French, and German were studied in the secondary
period. The various teachers cooperated closely, and a correla-
tive study of word derivations and problems of syntax and
grammar in each language was developed. At one time the
same person taught both Latin and English. Contemporaneous
with a study of English village life, an attempt was made to
gather together, interrelate, and unify all the previous lan-
guage experience of the oldest groups in the school. Group XI
(fourteen years) had had little formal work in English, most
of their grammar having been acquired in the collateral study
of French and Latin. Their general reading of the classics had
been limited. A critical analysis of one of Shakespeare's plays
was undertaken. This was followed by furth